Takigakure Ryū: Naruto
by s15945
Summary: Naruto, after asking the Sandaime for training and being refused, is taken under the wing of an Uzumaki from Takigakure who will have none of the clans' bullshit
1. Resolution

The time for the Chuunin Exams had come around again and the final preliminary fight had just ended and, as is traditional, the Jounin Sensei's of the victorious Genin met in the Hokage's office to find out where they could train their Genin for the final exam in a months' time. As the Hokage was finishing up a loud blonde burst in and declared "Jiji, train me!"

This surprised the gathered Jounin, the fact that some blonde gaki had the nerve to actually demand something from the Hokage. The Hokage replied in a tone that indicated that there would be no compromises "No."

"What? Why not? The clan children are being taught Ninjutsu already."

The Sandaime sighed and said "I can't be seen to show favouritism Naruto." 'Besides, if I did then the attacks would probably become even worse.'

"Tseh," Naruto scoffed, angry at the Hokage, the other kids his age, their parents and the village in general and then he ran off.

"Hmm..." one of the Jounin sensei said, following the young blonde run from the room with her eyes. "Hokage-dono, would it be acceptable for me to train him along with my own student for a time?"

"No."

"Eh? But the reason that you just gave to him was because you can't show favouritism, surely that wouldn't apply to me."

"Well, that wasn't the only reason."

"Really, and what would that be?"

"Naruto gets attacked by the villagers on a regular basis, as well as overcharged for purchases. I can't have him, a child, able to inflict damage upon the villagers."

"Even in self defence?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed and said "Yes, even in self defence."

"If the reason is that a child has no right to such power, or doesn't know when to and when not to use it, then why do you let the clans train their children?"

Hiruzen sighed and said "I can't really do anything to stop them, after all, it _is_ a parents prerogative to protect their children, as well as ensure that they are able to protect themselves."

"And that _doesn't_ apply to Naruto, why?"

Hiruzen sighed and replied, "Naruto is an orphan."

"Alright then, with or without your permission I am training him."

"I am afraid that I cannot allow you to do that."

"Why not?"

"As I already told you Uzumaki Naruto has no family, nor a guardian and therefore comes under the protection of the state and..."

"Uzumaki? That gaki is an Uzumaki" the Jounin asked.

"Yes. What of it?"

"Then I, Uzumaki Amayah have every right to train him."

"Uzu..." the Sandaime trailed off, he sighed and said "then I have no right to stop you. Do as you will."

"Very well then" the redheaded female Takigakure Jounin said as she left the Hokage's office to find Naruto. Soon enough she found the blonde eating at his favourite restaurant, Ichiraku Ramen, still depressed at not being able to learn any ninjutsu. She sat down next to him and, after being asked what she wanted she looked at the menu and then proceeded to order 12 bowls of Miso-Pork Ramen. Naruto's eyes widened at hearing the order and looked at the person sitting next to him. "Yes?" Amayah asked, looking at the blonde. Not receiving a reply she asked "do I have something on my face?"

"Uh, no," Naruto replied "it's just that you are the first person that I've seen here who orders the same amount as I do."

"What? Really? Then they, whoever 'they' are, do not know what they're missing. After all, ramen is the food of the gods."

"Yeah, I know, it is isn't it?" Naruto asked by way of a reply.

"Yep, it sure is."

"Say, didn't I see you in the Hokage's office before."

"Yes, yes you did" Amayah replied.

"So, what do you want? Surely it's not just your love of ramen?"

"Well, truly that was part of it. But originally I had been searching for you."

"Me? Why?"

"Well, you see, I heard what you said, and the Hokage told the Jounin what happens in the clans and, since I am also an Uzumaki, that gives me the right to teach you some ninjutsu if I want."

"Wait! You're an Uzumaki too?"

"Yep, I sure am" Amayah said, with a smile eerily similar to Naruto's own. "Uzumaki Amayah, that's me."

"Uzumaki Amayah huh?" Naruto asked.

"Yep, from now on it will be Amayah-sensei though."

"Alright! Amayah-sensei, so, what's first?"

Amayah let out a laugh, "first off, is we finish our lunch."

"Oh, right" Naruto said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"After that we meet my other student and start your training."

"Other student?"

"Yeah, do you see my forehead protector?" Amayah asked, pointing to her forehead protector that was attached to a sea-green cloth.

"Yeah."

"Well, that means that I am a ninja from Takigakure, my team is participating in the Chuunin exams right now and two of my students managed to get into the final exam in a month. I arranged for some other Takigakure Jounin to train them so, now I'm focusing on the one that didn't get through."

"Alright, so what'll we be doing then?"

Amayah smiled at the eagerness displayed by Naruto and said "Ah, now that is a secret." Naruto groaned in annoyance at the anticipation that was washing over him in waves causing Amayah to laugh. She said, "Don't worry, my other student doesn't know what I'll be teaching either."


	2. Water Release

When Amayah and Naruto arrived at the training ground that the Takigakure Jounin had previously arranged to meet her Genin in, the Genin exclaimed "Hey Sens...ei...who is that?"

"This?" Amayah asked, referring to Naruto. "From now on Naruto will be your kōhai."

"Eh?" the Takigakure Genin, half stated in confusion as to why her sensei would take on a pupil from another Hidden Village.

"Uzumaki Naruto" Naruto stated.

"Uzuma..." the Genin trailed off.

"Yeah, Uzumaki Naruto is my name, what is yours?"

"Oh...uh...right! Sorry, I'm just surprised to find an Uzumaki in a village like Konoha, that's all."

"Oh, uh...alright then...you're weird nee-chan."

"Weird...?" the female Genin repeated before her face turned red in anger at being called weird by someone that she had only just met.

As her Genin was about to launch an attack against Naruto Amayah laughed and said "Alright, that's enough Nanami," stopping her Genin before the possibility of a formal complaint arose.

"So, what are we going to be learning?" Nanami asked.

"This," Amayah stated as she turned and faced the river and went through three handseals and then, after that, she raised her hand, her index an middle fingers raised towards the sky, so that it was to the side of her mouth and, as she breathed out, a stream of water flew from her mouth. "This, is the Suiton jutsu '_Suiton: Mizurappa(1)_', that is the jutsu that I will be teaching you. Nanami, you try it, the seals are Dragon, Tiger, Hare. Naruto, I need to give you a rundown of the way that jutsu are performed before I let you try it, alright?"

"Sure thing Amayah-Sensei" Naruto said, walking over to sit down in front of a tree with Amayah.

Hearing Naruto call Amayah 'sensei' caused Nanami to frown, for some reason feeling an irritation that knew no bounds. She then went through the sequence of handseals that she was told, facing the river and, as she breathed out a stream of sluggish water got expelled. She thought 'alright, first time's the charm, now I need to work on power' she then proceeded to repeat the actions that she had just undertaken, this time though, nothing happened. 'Damnit well, looks like I have further to go than I thought, a well, all good things come to those that wait I guess.' She then repeated her actions yet again.

Meanwhile, over with Naruto, Amayah was saying "alright Naruto, as you probably already know, chakra is..."

"What's chakra?"

"Eh!" Amayah exclaimed, you don't even know what chakra is?

"Well, I don't have any family, well, that I know of anyway, and none of the grownups around here will give me the time of day, let alone tell me anything actually useful."

Amayah's eyes narrowed in anger at the villagers' actions to a member of the Uzumaki Clan. She said "Well, all ninjutsu stem from the knowledge of and ability to control your chakra." She looked to see that Naruto was paying attention before she continued "Now, chakra can be said to be combining the physical energy present in every cell of the body and the spiritual energy gained from exercise and experience. Chakra runs through every living being through a system known as Keirakukei(2). Ninjutsu requires you to release chakra through the Tenketsu(3), these allow ninja to expel chakra from their Keirakukei and form it into attacks, in the form of either Ninjutsu or Genjutsu. Before I go any further though, I would like to make it clear that Uzumaki traditionally have larger quantities of chakra than other people, thus Genjutsu, which would normally require very precise control over your chakra to use, is practically impossible, so don't bother trying to learn any normal Genjutsu. It simply is not possible."

"Is that true?"

"Yes, I can't use normal Genjutsu either, however, when Uzushiogakure was still in existence the Uzumaki found a way around that. I shall teach that to you at a later time. For now I need to go on to chakra molding."

"Molding?"

"Yes, when a ninja molds the chakra within their body the things known as ninjutsu are created. Now, before you ask me any other questions, the handseals that I told Nanami before are only three of twelve basic seals. There are others that are required for higher ranked jutsu, but for now, I shall teach you the basic twelve, how does that sound?"

"Sure thing Amayah-Sensei."

"Alright then, the first one is..." after two hours Naruto had forming the basic seals down but Amayah told Naruto that, before she let him try performing the Suiton jutsu, that he would need to show her that he could form the seals one hundred percent of the time instantaneously. Because if he got even one finger out of place the jutsu may blow up in his face, or just fail completely. So, with the incentive of a new jutsu in mind, and seeing the progress that his senpai was making, Naruto decided then and there that he would practice until he had to go to bed that night and all through the next day and however long Amayah needed to and then, when he was ready, he would perform the jutsu perfectly.

Two days later Naruto could form the handseals to a level that Amayah was satisfied that he would be able to perform the jutsu without it blowing up in his face, and told him the same sequence to use that she had previously informed Nanami of. Naruto moved over, next to Nanami and performed the handseals. Now, whereas Nanami's first attempt was, truly pretty pathetic, Naruto's, while still not completely correct, had some power in it and he exclaimed in joy at his achievement. Amayah called out "Congratulations Naruto..." inside she was thinking 'Thank the elements that he has a water affinity, still, he _is_ an Uzumaki, it would be weird if he didn't.' "...don't get cocky now, it still is nowhere near Nanami's level." Nanami had, by now, increased the volume and power of hers exponentially. It still wasn't as powerful as Amayah's, but it was getting there.

A week and a half later, both Nanami and Naruto had _Suiton: Mizurappa_ down to a level that Amayah felt it was able to be used in a battle. She then had them use it against each other and, surprisingly enough, Naruto's overpowered Nanami's, much to her distaste. Nanami ran off after that, followed by Amayah looking apologetically at Naruto and running after her. Soon enough Amayah caught up to Nanami, who had slumped down against a giant tree and was holding her knees crying into them. Amayah leant against a tree opposite Nanami's and sighed. "Nanami..." Amayah started to say before she was cut off by Nanami, saying "Amayah-sensei-iii..." and breaking into sobs again. Amayah sighed again and said "Nanami, I know that you probably don't want to hear this, but Suiton just might not be a suitable element for you. I mean, yes, your mother did have a small Suiton affinity, but both she _and_ your father had a far stronger earth affinity. I can help you there as well you know."

"But Amayah-sensei I...I..."

Amayah sighed and said "I know, you wanted to show those idiots in the village that they were wrong about your family, but sometimes it really is easier to just forgo someth..."

"The hell it is" Naruto said, coming out from behind a tree, having heard the entire conversation.

"What?" the two females asked looking at Naruto.

"Sure, there may be easier ways to do something, but it's the harder way that will, in the end, make you feel better."

"Naruto..." Nanami said, stunned that the blonde actually understood some of what she was feeling.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Let's get back to work" Naruto said with a smile on his face.

"Yeah, sure" Nanami said, eager to get back to training.

(1) Suiton: Mizurappa: Water Release: Violent Water Wave

(2) Keirakukei: Chakra Pathway System

(3) Tenketsu: Chakra Points


	3. Takigakure Bound

Two and a half weeks later the Chuunin exams were over and one of Amayah's Genin had gotten promoted. It also found Amayah in the Hokage's office once again. Also once again she was arguing with the Hokage over one Uzumaki Naruto. "Why not?" Amayah demanded.

"Because Amayah, Naruto is a civilian of this village and as such he is subject to the laws therein. You would need to get his guardians signat..."

"His guardian? He has a guardian? Does he know that?"

Sarutobi Hiruzen sighed and said "No, he doesn't."

"What!" Amayah exclaimed, stunned into anger at the reply. "Why the hell not, from what he's told me he hasn't had the best life here. Also, the attacks would probably stop if you at least told the civilians of this wretched village about it."

"No, I couldn't."

"Why couldn't you tell them?"

"Because, then it might get out and he would be in just as much danger as if they knew who his father is."

"His father? You know who his parents are?"

Hiruzen sighed and said "Yes, and I can't tell Naruto about them either, even knowing the comfort it may give him."

"Why not?"

Hiruzen sighed and answered "Because, doing so would threaten both his life and the village."

"Eh?"

Hiruzen sighed and said "That's all I can tell you. You _are_ from another village after all."

"I understand. I also understand that Naruto-kun will not be targeted in my village as he is here."

"I told you his guardian would have to..."

"Whose guardian?" a white haired man asked, walking in through the open window.

"Jiraiya? What are you doing here?" Hiruzen asked.

"I thought that now would be a good time to pop in and give you a report on my recent findings...ohhh! You sly ol' dog Sandaime!" Jiraiya exclaimed, seeing the beautiful Kunoichi standing opposite the Hokage.

"You fool!" Hiruzen said.

"Oh, then she's free then is she?" Jiraiya asked, completely oblivious of the rage building inside Amayah.

Hiruzen sighed and turned to Amayah before she could start attacking Jiraiya in a righteous rage. "Amayah, please forgive my wayward student. He is the one whose signature you will be needing after all."

"I see" Amayah said, looking away, disgusted by Jiraiya. "Very well then, you, ero-jiji, apparently I need your permission to take Uzumaki Naruto to my village for a few years."

"Eh?" Jiraiya asked, confused at the request being made of him.

Hiruzen said "let me explain before you make a decision, or Amayah attacks you Jiraiya."

"Very well, Sarutobi-sensei" Jiraiya said suddenly serious.

"Amayah here is a Jounin from Takigakure and, hearing of the clans' starting to train their children she decided to teach Naruto some jutsu for the past month."

"What?" Jiraiya exclaimed. "But surely I would have had to have..."

"Well there's the crux of the matter," Hiruzen said, cutting Jiraiya off. "Amayah is part of one of the surviving branches of the Uzumaki clan. Now she wants to take Naruto to her village for a few years to train him further."

"I see" Jiraiya replied. "Alright then, you have my permission. Be warned though, I _will_ be checking in on him every so often, alright?"

"Thank you Ero-jiji-dono."

Jiraiya grimaced and complained "Don't call someone Ero-jiji and then add on a term of respect."

"Very well Ero-jiji" Amayah replied, causing Jiraiya to fall on the ground. "I'll go tell Naruto the good news then" Amayah, having gotten permission to take her young protégé to her village, then left the Sandaime's office to inform Naruto.

After Amayah had left Hiruzen turned to Jiraiya and said "I hope you know what you are doing."

"Heh, you know that this'll piss those old farts on the council off, right."

Hiruzen raised his hand and rubbed the bridge of his nose, sighed, and said "That's really why you did that, isn't it?"

"No, it's just a bonus."

"Tseh, it's always the same with you isn't it? So, what did you want to see me about?"

"Well, recently a civil war has erupted in Amegakure. Other than that, there's not really too much going on that you probably don't already know about."

"Well, you better leave before the council gets wind of what you just did."

"Yeah, later" Jiraiya said, disappearing in a cloud of smoke.

Meanwhile, at Ichiraku Ramen Stand, Amayah was informing Naruto of the agreement that she had come to with the Sandaime, leaving any mention of his having a guardian out of it. Naruto, upon hearing the news, hugged her fiercely. He then proceeded to profess his never-ending thanks for doing so as it would rid him of the glares of the villagers for at least a while. Amayah then told Naruto to go and pack up his clothes and meet her at the village's north gate in an hour. He then ran off and packed up his three sets of clothes and ran to the gate, getting there half an hour early. Amayah and her Genin got there fifteen minutes later and Amayah exclaimed "Naruto! How long have you been waiting?"

"Only fifteen minutes or so."

"Fifteen minutes! I thought I told you to meet us in an hour?"

"Yeah well, I don't own much, so..." Naruto trailed off.

"Well, alright then" Amayah said whilst thinking 'I bet they are all bright orange if what I've seen so far is any indication.' "Well then, let's go." As her two of her Genin jumped into the treetops Amayah shouted out "hey! We're walking home this time."

"What!" the two Genin exclaimed. "Why?"

"Because, you bakas," Nanami yelled, "Naruto-kun can't jump from tree to tree."

"Oh, right!" the one that had just been promoted to Chuunin exclaimed as she jumped back down to the ground. They then walked off, towards Takigakure.


	4. Takigakure

Three weeks later Naruto, Amayah, Nanami and Amayah's two other Genin arrived at the waterfall that served as the entrance to Takigakure. When they stopped in front of the waterfall Amayah turned to Naruto and said "Alright Naruto, this' going to be your home for the next few years, alright?"

"Yeah, sure is Amayah-nee." Amayah smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair. "There's just one teeny tiny problem," Naruto said, holding his thumb and forefinger about a centimetre apart.

"Yes?" Amayah asked with a raised eyebrow, smiling at the question that she knew was coming.

"This is a waterfall."

"Yeah, I know. This _is_ _Taki_gakure after all. It's in the name, so of course there needs to be at least one waterfall in the area. That said though, in this case the waterfall is actually the gates to our village. The village is through there" Amayah replied, pointing at the waterfall. As they went through the waterfall Amayah continued, "because it's your first time here we'll be taking the longer, safer, way."

Amayah's team then proceeded on to go the long way up to their village. When they were at the entrance they were met by five armed guards, one of them, clearly the leader, asked "Uzumaki Amayah, who is this with you?"

"Get off that horse Hiroke-chan, it doesn't suit you."

"Amayah," Hiroke growled out, warningly.

"Oh calm down, this is Naruto, a cousin of sorts."

"Cousin?"

"Yeah, turns out that an Uzumaki managed to reach Konoha after the village was destroyed. I've received permission to train him for a few years, and then he's heading back."

"Have you gotten permission from the elders for such a..."

"Oh screw those old fossils, and don't forget that I know you, Hiroke. You've never been some councilman's lapdog."

Hiroke growled and Naruto asked "What's wrong Ossan?"

"Eh?" Hiroke exclaimed.

"What? Is there a problem?" Amayah laughed at Naruto's wording of the question, and Hiroke's reaction, accompanied by the rest of the guards along with Amayah's Genin. After that the rest of the guards let Amayah's team through with no problems. When they had reached the entrance to the village Amayah dismissed her team and Naruto looked up at her and asked, "So, what was wrong with that Ossan back there?"

"Oh nothing, Hiroke is just pissed that all of his Genin were thoroughly trounced by mine at the Chuunin exams. You see, when he and I were growing up our mother thought it would be a good idea to foster a sibling rivalry between us, you know, so we would push one another to be better that the other. Well, it worked, kind of."

"Why kind of?"

"Well, I scored higher than him in the academy, then, when we competed in our first Chuunin exam, I defeated him in a preliminary match before going on to be promoted. The next Chuunin exam he got promoted, after that he challenged me to a fight, I won again. And so on and so forth."

"Oh, I see" Naruto said as he followed along beside Amayah as she headed to the house that she shared with her brother. "He must be pretty weak then."

"Actually, and don't tell him I said this, I think that he's one of the strongest shinobi in this village."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you see, there's many different types of strength."

"Really?"

"Yeah, there is strength of fist, strength of mind, and strength of heart."

"Really, what are they?"

"Strength of fist means that you are physically strong and can win every fight you get in; strength of mind, that means that you can think your way out of any situation that you get yourself into. Personally, my favourite type of person seeks the last one, strength of heart. That means that you have the courage to never give up and trust your friends to be able to handle themselves, it also means being able to follow through on anything you set your mind to."

"I see" Naruto said.

"Well, here we are."


	5. Uzumaki Hiroke

The next day, when Naruto, Amayah and her brother were having breakfast, Naruto asked "So, what did your council say Itoko-san?"

"They have agreed to my training you for two years."

"Alright!" Naruto exclaimed, happy at being able to be trained in the ninja arts by his family member(1), and raced to finish his breakfast so that they could get to training.

"Calm down" Amayah said in a laughing tone, "I'm afraid that I won't be able to oversee your training personally for a few weeks. When I was informing the elders of my intentions to train you, a mission came asking for me personally, turns out that one of the clients that I dealt with when I was a Genin remembered me and now wants to hire me again."

"But..."

"So I asked Hiroke to train you in my stead."

"Really?"

"Yeah, she sure did" Hiroke replied.

"So, what are you going to teach me Aniki."

Amayah growled and exclaimed "Why do I get Itoko and he gets Aniki?"

"Because Nee-chan, he knows real talent when he sees it."

"Well, I just thought that since, well, you know, you're my sensei and all, it would be better to have some distance in normal interactions. That's all."

"Don't be ridiculous" Amayah chastised as Hiroke face-faulted.

"Alright, Aneki."

"There, that's much better. Now, I'll be seeing you two later" Amayah remarked as she got up from the table and left for the elders' offices to meet her client.

"So, what'll you be teaching me today? Some cool new Suiton ninjutsu, or maybe a different element, or maybe a..."

"Alright alright," Hiroke shouted, causing Naruto to stop his rant. "Now, first off, I'm not a ninjutsu-type fighter like Nee-chan is. I'm actually a genjutsu-type." "

A genjutsu user? But..."

"I'm sure that Nee-chan told you that Uzumaki tend to have problems with genjutsu, right?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?"

"I had a feeling, now what she said _is_ true, I was just lucky that our Mother was a genjutsu user of the highest order, Inoue Masaki. I inherited her capacity for genjutsu along with my father's level of chakra, Amayah was not so lucky, although her talent in Suiton far and away makes up for that. For now though, I want to train you in the basics of being a ninja."

"The basics?"

"Yeah, now, first up, a quiz, what weapons do ninja use?"

"Well, traditionally, there are kunai, shuriken and some can use a sword."

"Very good, so, first up is kunai practice." Hiroke then took Naruto to his and Amayah's backyard where there were three targets set up. "Now, when you can hit them more times than you miss, then I will teach you how to break out of a genjutsu."

Three weeks later Amayah was still away on her mission and Naruto was hitting the target about six times out of ten. Hiroke, when he could, had been giving Naruto advice on how to correct his aim and the strength of his throws but, since Naruto had never had the opportunity to even throw a ball between himself and a friend it had taken him a while to get it to this point. Hiroke, coming out to see how Naruto was doing, and seeing that he was indeed hitting the target more times than not, he announced "hey, Naruto, you're hitting 'em more 'n you miss now, how about I teach you how to break out of genjutsu?"

"Uh, I kinda want to make it so I hit the target ten times out of ten first Aniki" Naruto replied.

"Don't worry about that for now, you can keep practicing when you're done training for the day since throwing those things doesn't require any chakra."

"Alright."

"Now, just stay right where you are" Hiroke said as he moved in front of Naruto. When he was standing before Naruto he went through four handseals and said "Kigen: Shinku no Sora(2)." As he finished the last handseal Naruto saw the sky turn crimson. "Now, this is one of my lesser genjutsu. It shouldn't be too hard to break out of. Put your hands in the Ram seal that nee-chan showed you." Naruto formed the Ram seal. "Now, I want you to feel the chakra moving around inside you." After about forty minutes Naruto felt his chakra flowing throughout his body and looked up. Seeing Naruto's reaction, Hiroke said "Alright, now this is going to be the hardest bit here, I need you to stop your chakra from flowing."

"What?" Naruto exclaimed, confused by the instruction given to him.

'This kids _just like_ nee-chan, typical ninjutsu-type.' "Just trust me on this one, alright?"

"Hai" Naruto said, determined to dispel the genjutsu.

A week later Amayah returned and Naruto was still having problems stopping his chakra's flow. Amayah was not entirely pleased as she had requested Hiroke to teach Naruto not how to dispel genjutsu, but 'Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba'. Before she could go into a full-blown rage however, Naruto said "it's alright Aneki, really, I would have had to have learnt it at some point anyway, right?"

Amayah sighed and said "I suppose so. The problem is, is that your chakra control, like mine, is damned near nonexistent, that's why I've been focusing on ninjutsu so far. When I got back I was going to show you a chakra control exercise that we use here in Takigakure."

"Really?"

"Yes" Amayah said, glaring at her brother, who, by now, was sweating up a storm, scared of staying, but even more so of fleeing. "Well, I can probably explain how to better your control over your chakra than my brother, who's control was already damned near perfect anyway" she glared at her brother again, this time in jealousy, which Hiroke saw right through and smugly smirked, before seeing his sisters glare of envy, turn into one of rage. "You see, usually when people try to learn to control their chakra, they learn first how to use small parts of it, since they have smaller chakra supplies. However, we Uzumaki, who are cursed with large chakra supplies, tend to overuse our chakra, thereby destroying any chance we may have had at learning a lower ranked jutsu, such as the 'Henge'. That's why we reverse the process."

"Okay" Naruto said, unsure of what Amayah was talking about.

"Alright, let's go walk on water." Naruto looked at Amayah like she was a crazy person for suggesting that they could walk on water. "Don't look at me like that, I'm not crazy."

(1) For the purposes of this story, and the laziness of the author, Amayah and Naruto are directly related (2nd cousins).  
>(2) Kigen: Shinku no Sora = Fall Illusion: Crimson Sky<p> 


	6. Uzumaki Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba

After three weeks of being wet, Naruto managed to master the water walking exercise that Amayah showed him. In the nights he continued to practice with his Kunai throwing skills until he reached a point at which he was hitting each target successfully, with concentration and taking time to aim them. When he showed Amayah, she said, "that's great Naruto, but you still have a long way to go before you can use them in battle."

"Really?" Naruto had asked.

"Yes. An enemy ninja will not allow you that amount of time that you were using to get your aim right. Tell me when you can hit all ten targets within thirty seconds and I'll start you on advanced kunai skills."

"Alright!" Naruto had loudly, and excitedly, exclaimed.

One night Amayah asked Naruto "so, now that you can use the water walking exercise, you should be able to mould the chakra that you use in your jutsu almost perfectly."

"Moulding chakra?"

"Yes. When a ninja uses ninjutsu, they use three things. The first is chakra. The other two are skills that allow us to use the chakra for various affect."

"Really?"

"Yes. The first, in theory, is chakra control."

"Chakra control?"

"Yes, when you use a ninjutsu, I assume that you feel a drain to your energy of some sort?"

"Well, actually, I guess I never really noticed it, but yeah, thinking about it, I do."

"Well, that's because you cannot completely control your chakra. The less control a ninja has over their chakra, the less likely it is that they will be able to participate in a drawn out battle. This is because, since you aren't properly controlling your chakra, the jutsu that you use will either use too much chakra, resulting in you being drained faster than you should be, or, should you use too little chakra, the jutsu just won't work at all, or turn out being truly rather pathetic" Amayah said as she thought back to some of her earliest attempts. Hiroke did as well and laughed to himself as he pulled them off straight away, much to their mothers' chagrin. "Moulding chakra involves the extraction of energies from both the body's cells and the mind's consciousness, then mixing them together within the individual. The amount of each type of energy will differ based on the type of technique the ninja wishes to execute."

"Alright, so now I can mould my chakra correctly, right?"

"Yes."

"Alright! I'm so awesome!" Hiroke laughed at that while Amayah's hand rose to cover and rub her eyes.

"Yes yes, I know" Amayah said, remembering that she had reacted the exact same way as Naruto was when she was his age. "Anyway, since you can now mould your chakra correctly, I'm going to start you on one of our clan's techniques."

"Really?" Naruto asked, eager to learn one of his families' jutsu.

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"In recent years it has had its name changed, so we have adopted that name to it in our family as well. It was known as Uzumaki-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba. But, currently, it is Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba."

"Okaayy...hey, wait a sec! Is that the thing that Nanami-nee-chan was practicing the other day?"

"Yes, although I have recommended that, at some point, she should create a version, unique to herself as it would be infinitely easier for her to use her Doton affinity rather than her Suiton one. Well, Nanami's stubbornness aside, you are aware that the Suiton: Mizurappa requires three handseals for the proper execution of it, correct?" Amayah asked. Seeing Naruto nod in reply, Amayah continued "well, the Mizukiri no Yaiba requires no handseals at all. It consists solely of changing the nature of your chakra into water like you do in Suiton: Mizurappa, except this time, it is done, not inside your body, but in your hand, and manipulating the shape of it."

"Manipulating the shape of it?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, to be honest, the Suiton: Mizurappa requires no shape manipulation, since all you do is shoot a stream of water in the direction that you are looking at the time, but the Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba, requires you to shape the Suiton chakra into the shape of a sword. When you are just starting to learn it is usually easier if you use a medium such as a kunai."

Naruto raised his hand and asked "Amayah-nee, what's this 'medium' thing that you are talking about?"

"A medium is a device or thing that you can pass something through."

"Ohh! Like that thing that I saw a couple of the clan kids doing with the tin cans and the rope?"

"Yes! That's actually a pretty good example. For this though, the kunai acts as the medium, instead of the cord."

"Alright, so, how do I do it?"

"Alright, let's go outside for now."

"Okay, why though? If it works as you say, shouldn't we be able to do it indoors, just as well as we can outdoors?"

"Yes, well..." Amayah scratched the back of her head and laughed, self-deprecatingly, "...I thought the same thing when I was learning it and, well, let's just say that the house wasn't really the same for about six months."

"Really?"

"Yeah, nee-chan managed to cause the wood, that our entire house was constructed of, of one wall to suffer from wood rot because she ignored our parents' warnings the Mizukiri no Yaiba went out of control."

"Yes yes, I am well aware of what happened. So, you will be learning it out the back until I say that you are at a level that you can continue practicing indoors with it."


	7. Amayah's Rage

After three weeks Naruto managed to completely master the creation of one 'Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba.' After Naruto mastered the creation of it Amayah had showed him stances that are used in conjunction with the Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba, and then had him connect them through the use of many different kata's. When he had mastered the kata's that she had shown him, Amayah started to fight against him herself, in order to give Naruto some practical experience fighting against a ninja. She started off taking it easy on him, well, as much as she could anyway, but, after two weeks of that, she abandoned the idea as Naruto quickly exceeded the 'going easy on him' stage. Four months of fighting later, Amayah instructed Naruto to create two  
>Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba's. It took him about a week to complete that task and, after he had, she started to show him ways to fight utilising both swords, instead of just the one that he had been. After one month of showing him different kata's and Naruto's mastering of them in two months, they started fighting on top of the water again. Amayah had not wasted the nights either. She had had Naruto reading up on some basic sealing jutsu and was testing him at the end of each week. Three months later Amayah said from across the table "hey Naruto, I'm going to show you one last thing and then I'm going to be having Hiroke teach you some of his jutsu."<p>

"Eh?" Naruto asked, confused as to why Amayah was, in his mind, ditching him. "Are you abandoning me too nee-chan..." Naruto asked as tears welled up in his eyes.

"Hell no, what are you, crazy? I would never do something like that."

Naruto sniffed and then asked "so then why are you passing me off onto Hiroke nii-chan?"

Hiroke, who was having dinner alongside them, slumped down onto the table and, when he looked up he said "what am I, chopped liver?"

"Eh?" Naruto and Amayah asked, looking confused.

Hiroke sighed as he looked down at his plate in exasperation at his relatives' identical reactions "never mind." Amayah and Naruto smiled at each other conspiratorially. Hiroke looked up and accused "you two planned that!"

"No, we wouldn't do that, would we Naruto?" Amayah asked oh so innocently

"Never!" Naruto announced, faking being gobsmacked that someone would even suggest such a thing.

Hiroke sighed and said "these two..." as he clenched his fist multiple times.

Amayah said, "anyway, I won't be teaching you for the next eight months because, basically, Hiroke is far more capable than I in those areas."

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, really?" Hiroke echoed.

Amayah's forehead started twitching at Hiroke's' involvement. "Uuhh...I'll shut up now...right?"

"Hiroke...shut up...or I'll kill you."

"Alright, so, what'll you be teaching me?"

"Well, you know how I told you that there was a way for Uzumaki like ourselves to cast genjutsu, right?"

"Yeah...what of it?"

"Well, I am going to teach you the most basic genjutsu that you can cast through the  
>Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba...this jutsu also was once considered as being named under the Uzumaki-Ryū moniker, but is now more commonly known as 'Takigakure-Ryū: Shui-sa' it is a genjutsu that will temporarily paralyse the victims joints. Now, I'll show you it tomorrow, for now, it's time for bed."<p>

"Hai, onee-san" Naruto stated, before rushing off to bed.

After Naruto had gone to bed Hiroke looked at his sister and asked "so, what am I to teach him this time?"

"You better teach him the Kami'gakari no jutsu" Amayah replied in a tone that said 'if you don't, there will be pain...and a lot of it.'

"Are you sure, that's not an Uzu..."

"I know that! But even so..."

Hiroke sighed and said "you really do like him, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. Hell, I'd probably try to adopt him myself, if he wasn't from another Hidden Village."

"I thought so. So that's why you want to teach him some of our mother's clans' jutsu...have you run that plan by Obaasan?" Amayah looked off to the side, giving Hiroke the answer that he had been expecting. "Nee-chan, you know that she..."

"I know...that's part of the reason that I want Naruto to learn it."

"Alright, what's the last bit?"

Amayah sighed and said "I've been after that bitch Chiyome to teach Nanami Chinkon no jutsu, this' the only way that I can think of that will force her to do it."

Hiroke sighed and said, "I thought so. You two will never change."

"I know, and don't you just love us for that?"

Hiroke sighed again and stated "love...or hate...sometimes both."

Amayah growled out "Hiroke," extending the vowels, causing Hiroke to see volcanoes erupting behind his sister, her eyes glowing red.

"Uhh...oh shit" Hiroke stated flatly, having seen his sister enter her 'insane rage mode' before. Whenever she had entered it, he had woken up in the hospital the next day. Soon enough, Hiroke was seen bursting through the side of one of the walls of their house, accompanied by a loud noise. The neighbours, having heard, and seen, the event occur many times before, sighed and thought 'there's Amayah and Hiroke, at it again...I guess the run of good luck that we've had since she brought home that blonde couldn't hold out forever.'


	8. The Final Jutsu

A month later Naruto had mastered Takigakure-Ryū: Shui-sa, a paralytic genjutsu. Naruto could even cast it whilst he was fighting against Amayah, granted, she could also easily escape it, but even so, that is an amazing feat in and of itself. Amayah then passed Naruto over to Hiroke for training. The first thing that Hiroke did though, was not teach him the sensor ninjutsu, but another Suiton jutsu. The first day Hiroke had said to Naruto "alright Naruto, instead of teaching you a sensor ninjutsu, first off I'm going to teach you another Suiton jutsu. How does that sound?"

"Really!" Naruto exclaimed happily, eager to learn any kind of Suiton ninjutsu that he could.

Hiroke thought 'yep, just like nee-chan'. "Well then, let's get started. For this one we will need some water."

"Alright, so we're going to the crater again then?"

Hiroke smiled and said "no, not this time."

"No? Then where are..."

"Nowhere special. Although I will take you away from the house; Nee-chan would kill me if she found that I was teaching you another Suiton jutsu."

"Okay then, Hiroke-nii."

Within a fortnight Naruto had mastered Suiton: Mizugakure and started on Kami'gakari no jutsu. When he was explaining what it was, Hiroke said "alright Naruto, this next jutsu is one unlike any that you have learnt before. You see all of the jutsu that you have learnt, with the exception of Suiton: Mizugakure no jutsu, have been offensive in nature. This next one, Kami'gakari is a passive jutsu."

"Passive?"

"Yes. You see in this world there are numerous different styles of jutsu. The ones that you hear most often are Ninjutsu, Genjutsu and Taijutsu. But even with all these different styles, there are three categories that all jutsu will fall into: Offensive, Defensive and Passive."

"Huh? This is the first time that I've heard of this."

"Yes, well Amayah is like that. Most of hers fall squarely under the offensive category. Now let me tell you, that is not a bad thing. Not by a long shot. A classic example of an offensive style jutsu would be nee-san's favourite one; Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba. An example of a defensive jutsu is Suiton: Mizugakure, which you have just recently learned. A passive jutsu is sometimes referred to as a support jutsu. That is what Kami'gakari is."

"So I'm learning a support jutsu? I'm sorry, but that doesn't really sound all that useful."

Hiroke had a sweatdrop appear on the side of his head and said "I really wish you would stop doing that."

"Doing what?"

"That is exactly what nee-san said when she was first being taught this by our mother."

"Really? That's pretty cool" Naruto stated, awed at the fact that he was being compared to Amayah.

"No it's not!" Hiroke exclaimed in exasperation.

"Eh?"

Hiroke sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Look. Just because you have the same reaction as nee-san doesn't automatically make it a good thing. Alright?"

"Eh? Why not?"

"Look, just forget I said it, alright?"

Naruto stated "Well, alright" as he thought 'I'll have to look into this later'.

"Now, Kami'gakari is a jutsu that allows you to know where other people are by being able to sense their chakra."

"You can _sense_ their chakra?"

"Yes. Now, as I said, this is a passive jutsu in the way that it is not really too useful in a battle situation, but it does have its uses when you are trying to track an enemy's location." Seeing that he had Naruto's full attention, Hiroke continued "alright there are only two handseals needed for this jutsu. The first is the serpent, the second is the tiger seal." Hiroke did the seals himself and his eyes, and the area around them, changed colour. The iris and pupil changed to be completely bright red whilst the sclera turned bright orange. The part that Naruto found the strangest though, was that the skin around Hiroke's eyes turned a dark blue. "Now, you see how the area around my eyes turned dark blue?" Naruto nodded. "Well, each person that uses it has that area turn that colour. The colour of their eyes though, that is different. The colour of the eyes is different for each person. I don't know what determines the colour; I don't think anyone does really. But just know that yours will be different from both mine and Amayah's."

"Alright, Hiroke-sensei" Naruto replied.

"Now, you give it a shot."

"Hai" Naruto said as he did the handseal that Hiroke had done himself not too long ago. The area around Naruto's eyes started to change to a dark blue, but, before it could materialise, the colour disappeared.

Hiroke thought 'geez, I knew that the kid was good, only needing a month to be able to use Takigakure-Ryū: Shui-sa in battle. Only nee-san has ever managed to do so before. And now he's managed to change the area around his eyes on his first attempt. Granted, it didn't completely change colour, but even so...according to Oba-san only she, my mother and I have been able to completely change it on the first go. Heck, it took nee-san a week to get it as far as Naruto did on his first shot. Still, I suppose that nee-san _was_ trained in its use when we were 5 so it's not really that surprising. It was only my chakra control that allowed me to do so.' Hiroke said, "that was good Naruto, now you just need to keep on practicing until you've got it down." A month later Naruto had managed to completely change the colour of the skin around his eyes and their sclera turned a reddish-purple colour(1). But the pupil and the iris were still not quite there yet. Another fortnight after that and he had it down completely with the colour of his pupil and iris changing colour to a dull orange. However, there was one problem. He could only hold the jutsu for around thirty seconds. Any more than that and it would fail.

It took Naruto two months focusing almost solely on Kami'gakari for him to be able to hold it for fifteen minutes, and even then, it was barely. After Naruto could easily hold Kami'gakari for fifteen consecutive minutes Hiroke decided that it was time to teach Naruto an Anti-Genjutsu Ninjutsu. At the dinner table Naruto and Hiroke were alone as Amayah was on another mission, this time to Mizugakure, on a peacekeeping mission. Hiroke said to Naruto "alright Naruto, now that you can hold Kami'gakari for a fair amount of time I want to teach you a ninjutsu that can be used to send a genjutsu back on its user. How does that sound?"

"Really?" Naruto exclaimed. "But I thought that to be able to do something like that you would need some way to break the genjutsu down into its parts and then recast it on the opponent. That is what you said, right?"

"Yes! You _were_ listening." Hiroke said, acting surprised, knowing full well that Naruto paid close attention whenever they were discussing a jutsu and their strengths and weaknesses, as well as ways to counteract them. "Well, this one was actually created by me and nee-san working together."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was actually the first time that we did. Even then, we were actually told that we either work together on making something or be, basically, fired from the ninja corps of Takigakure."

"Really?"

"Yeah, believe it or not, at one point we were fighting each other pretty much every second day."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Anyway, about that jutsu..."

Authors Notes:

(1) The colour of Kushina's hair in the Anime


	9. Homeward Bound

After a few months Naruto got the jutsu down and Hiroke suggested that Naruto might like to experience some d-rank missions to make some money for when he goes back to Konoha. So Naruto did that for another couple of months, getting sick and tired of them really rather quickly. So Naruto started spending time with Amayah's team that had, by now, all been promoted to Chuunin. Naruto got on particularly well with Nanami as they had originally been training partners and had continued to come together every few weeks to discuss what was going on. Naruto counted Nanami as his best (and, technically, only) friend. But he was quickly becoming friends with the rest of Amayah's old team. Naruto, when he was done with the d-ranks (one/day) he would invariably either meet up with Nanami or train. After two months of d-rank missions Naruto, Hiroke, Amayah and her old team were gathered around Amayah's dinner table as, the next day, Naruto would be going back to Konoha. Amayah said "well, as they say, all good things must, unfortunately, come to an end. This night marks the last that Naruto shall be spending in Takigakure for tomorrow he is going to be picked up by Jiraiya to go home. So, in commemoration of your time here, Naruto, I have bought you a gift, well, a few actually." Amayah left the room to retrieve the gifts that she had bought Naruto. She came back down and handed him three wrapped bundles. Naruto tore into them with a frenzy and, when he was done, there was, laid out on the table, a full set of kunai made in the Takigakure style, a full set of shuriken and a scroll that Amayah informed Naruto that he was to open only when he had returned to Konoha.

Hiroke scratched the back of his head as he said "well, I'm sorry that mine doesn't really match up with nee-sans, but, well...here you go." Hiroke then handed Naruto a strip of cloth and said "here, this is a band for a forehead protector. It's the same ice blue as mine and nee-sans." Naruto eagerly grabbed it from Hiroke's hand and exclaimed his profound thanks and pleasure at receiving a forehead protector band that matched Amayah's and his.

Nanami, being the elected spokesperson for Amayah's team, said "well, when we heard about how the shopkeepers in Konoha were with prices, we decided to chip in and get you a few sets of ninja clothes." Naruto opened the wrapped clothes with a reverence that he had not shown with the previous gifts and, when it was opened, he found that there was only one set, of black pants and a black shirt, wrapped up. Nanami said "we could only get enough wrapping paper for one set so the rest are actually at my house." Amongst the clothes, and Naruto was glad for it, were pouches capable of holding his kunai and shuriken sets. Naruto, once again professed his undying attitude, knowing very well that the clothes stores in Konoha would have overcharged him for anything other than a colour that screamed 'here I am, dead man walking'.

After Naruto received the gifts Amayah's old team informed Naruto that they would be going on a mission tomorrow and, as such, needed their rest and left. Naruto then yawned himself and, with a warm feeling in his chest, went to bed. The next day Jiraiya came and took Naruto back to Konoha, this time it did not take a month and a half. This time it took barely two and a half weeks.

A link to the character design used for Naruto in this fic is in my profile.


	10. Konoha's Academy

When Naruto and Jiraiya got back to Konohagakure there was only two weeks left before the classes at the Konoha Ninja Academy started for those in Naruto's age group. Jiraiya, luckily, had signed enrolled Naruto in the academy prior to leaving for Takigakure to collect him. When Jiraiya reported to the Sandaime Hokage that they had returned he was informed that Hiruzen, in the time that they were away, had managed to arrange an apartment for Naruto. Jiraiya retrieved the keys for it from Hiruzen before meeting Naruto at Ichiraku Ramen Stand as they had agreed. When they arrived in the apartment Naruto exclaimed his pleasure at owning his own apartment. There were even some cookbooks included, along with a fully stocked fridge. After thanking Jiraiya Naruto took the rest of the day to settle in.

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Two weeks later Naruto was sitting in the back row of the classroom for the rest of the class. One by one they filed in until the classroom was full of students. The last two were a pink haired girl and a blonde that fought to get into the room before the both burst into the room at once, falling on their faces. When they got up they started screaming about how it was the other girls' fault. They then raced up to where a kid with dark blue hair was sitting, looking out the window. They then proceeded to fight who would sit next to him. In the end the blonde ended up sitting next to him with the pinkette sitting next to the blonde in the aisle seat.

After the students were settled in their teacher came in and announced "alright, first of all..." he then raised his voice to be heard above the chatter "...be quiet!" when the students had calmed down he continued "my name is Funeno Daikoku. You can refer to me as Daikoku-sensei. I will be teaching you the theory portion of your first year in the academy. A new instructor has been assigned to teach you the practical skills that you shall need to be a ninja in Konoha, any questions?" Naruto raised his hand to find out who was going to be the teacher for that part, but he was promptly ignored. The instructor then said "no? Alright then, first up is the history of Konoha, beginning with the Hokage's."

The lesson continued until midday when they were allowed to take a break for lunch. After they had their lunch they gathered at the academy training field as they had been instructed before their break. When they were all there the sensei said "alright, my name is Mizuki. I'll be teaching you the skills that you need to be a ninja. First up is kunai practice. Now, I hope that you all have a set of kunai on you. If you don't we do have some should you require them." All of the students indicated that they did indeed have a set of kunai with them. "Alright, now we've set up some targets for you all, you can see them behind me." The students looked past Mizuki and saw ten posts with targets on them. "Now I want you all to line up with three per target. After that you each throw five of your kunai at the target. When you are done you will wait for the rest of the students to finish their five and then you go and retrieve them from the targets. Then, once they are all back, the next row throws theirs and then the next row and so on." The students lined up and the first row threw theirs, most of them missed the targets completely, although Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru managed to hit theirs in the middle ring, the next row of students had most of the clan heirs in it, Yamanaka Ino, Aburame Shino, Hinata Hyūga along with Haruno Sakura. Ino, Shino and Hinata all hit the target on the outer ring and Sakura managed to only just miss it, despite having no previous training in it. The next row had Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba in it. When Sasuke threw his kunai each of them ended up directly in the centre of the target. Kiba's were in the middle ring. Naruto's kunai also hit the centre ring. Mizuki was not only surprised that there was someone from a family other than the Uchiha that could hit the targets in the centre five times out of five. He then looked at who it was and got enraged that Naruto had managed to equal Sasuke's score. He then looked at the kunai that Naruto had used and saw that they were not the standard kunai used by Konoha shinobi. Before the students could withdraw their kunai from the targets Mizuki yelled "hold it!" causing the students to stop where they were. He then marched over to where Naruto's target was and inspected the kunai and, seeing that he was correct in his assumption, he demanded "alright, where did you get these?"

Naruto replied, "I don't think that where I acquired my kunai should matter sensei, only that I hit the targets in the centre."

Mizuki growled and ordered, "from now on you are to use only the standard Konoha-made kunai."

Naruto took a step back in shock and started to ask "but why can't I use...?"

Before he could finish though Mizuki cut him off and said "you can't use them because I said so, and here, my word is law. Understood?"

"Hai" Naruto sadly said, dejected at not being allowed to use the kunai set that Amayah had given him.

Naruto then withdrew his kunai from the target and returned them to his kunai pouch. When he had done so he went to the box with the kunai in it that were being provided by the academy and took five of them to use during class. Mizuki then told Naruto "now, from tomorrow onwards I expect you to be carrying a set of standard Konoha kunai."

Naruto growled at the order, but, when asked if he had a problem with that he could only reply "no sensei" and get back in line. The next time that it was Naruto's turn to throw his borrowed kunai at the target, to Mizuki's delight, he missed every time by a rather large distance. After they had finished with kunai practice they moved on to shuriken with Naruto being banned from using his own once again.

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Over the next three years any questions that Naruto tried to ask in class were ignored, and the written tests were layered in a Fūinjutsu induced Genjutsu and anytime that he requested assistance during ninjutsu class he was overlooked. This led to him, even with all the chakra control training that Amayah had put him through, to be unable to use a simple Bunshin jutsu. When Naruto failed to complete a Bunshin he asked, "Hey, Iruka sensei, would it be possible for me to pass if I used a different jutsu instead?"

Iruka sighed and said, "I'm sorry Naruto, but the test that we have planned out needs to be the same for all students, if we made an exception for you, then there would be nothing stopping another student from attempting to use that as a precedent. Besides, if you can't even use a Bunshin, then there's no way that you could use anything else."

Naruto growled out "that's where you're wrong."

But before Naruto could do anything to prove Iruka wrong, Mizuki called out "next!" and Naruto left the room, head down and slowly left the classroom, the rest of his class looking at him in derision as most of them, excluding Hinata, had been expecting him to fail.

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After the classes had finished for the day the parents or guardians of the graduating students were standing by the gates when they were let go. They all gave words of congratulations and praise for having graduated. All except for Naruto, who was on a swing tied to a tree branch off to the side. Naruto in a bored tone said, "What is it Mizuki-Sensei?"

Mizuki looked up, shocked at Naruto's noticing his approach, as he had been careful to hide his presence (failing spectacularly). He asked, "How did you know that I was here?"

"You are joking right? Even a halfway decent ninja would be able to sense you from there."

Mizuki's face took on a dangerous look as he thought '_this brat, it's a good thing that I was already going to kill him, this' just another reason._' He then said, in a completely calm voice, "You know that Iruka truly does want you to graduate, right?"

"Then why didn't he let me use another jutsu on the test?"

"Like he said, there are rules that we need to abide by. It's just how things are done here in Konohagakure."

"Hmm...I suppose so."

"Speaking of rules, in the academy's bylaw's it is said that there are two ways that a student can graduate. One is the test that you, along with your classmates, just took. The other one can only be conducted with the express permission of one of the Academy's Chuunin Sensei's, such as Iruka and me."

"Okay, so what is this second test?"

"You need to go into the Hokage's office and acquire a large scroll that contains many jutsu. You must then go to a certain place and learn one of the jutsu from that scroll."

"Really?" Naruto eagerly asked.

"Yes."

"Alright then, I'll do that."

"I'm sure you will" Mizuki said as he thought, '_and then, when you have the scroll I'll kill you and take it away from the village with me_'

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That night found Naruto sitting on the ground, panting as Iruka saw him. Iruka jumped down from the tree and said, "It's all over now, Naruto," his mouth twitching.

Naruto laughed as he said "wow, you're quick Iruka-sensei. I only had enough time to learn one technique. Now you have to let me graduate, right?"

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Mizuki-sensei told me all about it when I didn't graduate. About the Academy's bylaws, and the second graduation exam."

Iruka thought '_so that's what happened, I thought that it was strange that Naruto would steal the scroll.'_ Just then Naruto saw a number of kunai came flying at Iruka and Naruto from the woods. He kicked Iruka's legs, causing him to fall to his knees and the kunai to keep on flying over his head. As Naruto kicked Iruka he went through the handseals for the first jutsu that he was ever taught. Iruka thought, '_just what is Naruto doing? There are seals there that we didn't teach at the academy...as a matter of fact they look just like...'_

Just as Iruka was coming up with a theory as to what kind of jutsu that Naruto was about to use was, Naruto said, "Suiton: Mizurappa." As he did a powerful stream of water shot out of his mouth, intercepting the incoming kunai that were heading towards him.

As the water shot out of Naruto's mouth Iruka's eyes widened to almost epic proportions and he thought '_when did Naruto learn a jutsu like that?_'

Naruto then did the serpent and tiger handseals and said, "Kami'gakari," causing the area around his eyes to turn dark blue, his sclera to turn a purple colour and the pupils and iris' to turn a burnt orange. Naruto looked in the direction of Mizuki, who, upon seeing Naruto save Iruka and stop the kunai that he had thrown at Naruto with a Suiton jutsu, had moved away from the direction that he had thrown the kunai from, and said, "Mizuki-Sensei just what do you think that you're doing?"

Mizuki thought '_how can he possibly know where I am? Forgetting that, how does he know that it's me?_' Mizuki then used a jutsu that spread his voice from various angles, not that it fooled Naruto for an instant, and said, "What are you doing Naruto, didn't I tell you about the test?"

Iruka yelled, "So it is true then, Mizuki, you're a traitor?"

"Wha?" Naruto started to ask at hearing Iruka's questioning of Mizuki.

Before Iruka could say anything else Mizuki said, "Naruto, give me the scroll now," as he appeared from behind the tree that he was hiding behind.

Iruka said, "Naruto, don't give Mizuki the scroll. That scroll contains a list of Kinjutsu that have the potential to harm the village. Mizuki used you to get the scroll for himself because he was too weak to do it himself."

Mizuki said, "That's a lie Naruto, Iruka is just saying that because he doesn't want you to have the scroll."

Naruto replied, "No, you are the one that's lying, Mizuki."

"What? No I'm not!"

"Yes, you are. Right now I have the ability to tell if someone is telling the truth or lying to me due to fluctuations in their chakra."

"Big words, I never thought that you could use so many in one sentence," Mizuki said as he thought '_ability to differentiate between truth and lies? Rubbish. Even so..._' Mizuki then said "very well then, I'll tell you the truth then, the single greatest truth in regards to your existence."

"Mizuki no!" Iruka pleaded.

"They've been lying to you your entire life Naruto, ever since the decree twelve years ago. The decree that everyone knows about except you."

"No, Mizuki don't it's forbidden!"

"No, I think that he needs to know. Naruto, didn't you ever think that it was strange how the village treated you when you were growing up? How they turned their backs on you as if you didn't exist, or when they treated you like dirt? I'll tell you the reason. It's because the Yondaime failed to destroy the Kyuubi that day. Instead he sealed it inside you Naruto. Do you understand now? You are not Uzumaki Naruto, you are the Kyuubi itself."

"I see... so that's why they..." Naruto said, looking down at the ground, reflecting back on his life whilst he was in the village.

"No, Naruto don't listen to him, he..."

"He's telling the truth Iruka-sensei, or, at least, as he believes it to be."

"Wha..."

Mizuki thought to himself, '_Dealing with Naruto by himself apparently is going to be tougher than I thought. So I should probably get rid of Iruka first and then I can take my time with that demon brat._' Mizuki then took one of the large shuriken off of his back and threw it at Iruka. Iruka, who by this time had stood back up and turned to look at Mizuki as he had been talking to Naruto. As the kunai was coming towards him he jumped up and spun horizontal to the ground. As the shuriken passed under him he reached into the hole in the centre of it and brought it around, sending it back at Mizuki.

Naruto thought, '_Wow, I've gotta ask him where he learnt that one._'

Mizuki moved behind the tree again and let the shuriken fly past him. Iruka turned to Naruto and said "alright Naruto, I'm sorry about what I said earlier. You hereby pass the graduation exam."

Naruto looked at Iruka, eyes full of hope as he asked "really, you really mean it?"

"Yes. Now I'm going to give you your first mission as an official shinobi of Konohagakure. Don't let Mizuki get that scroll, alright?"

"Right," Naruto said as he ran back towards the village.

Mizuki yelled "No!" and started to run after Naruto.

Iruka though, was having none of that as he threw a kunai at Mizuki's feet and said, "Mizuki, if you want that scroll then you'll need to go through _me_ first."

Mizuki growled and said, "fine then," and drew five kunai out of his kunai pouch. He threw them at Iruka and, as Iruka watched them to calculate their trajectory, threw another in the last ones shadow.

Iruka ducked to dodge all of the thrown kunai but, only when he had did he realise what Mizuki had done and, as he got hit in the knee, said, "Kage Kunai! When did you learn this?" to which Mizuki merely smirked and jumped off after Naruto.

Two minutes later Naruto came into Mizuki's sights and he transformed into Iruka before speeding up and saying, "Hey Naruto, it's great that you've protected the scroll so far, but Mizuki is after us now, so give it to me." Naruto looked at the Henge'd Mizuki and, after a few more jumps, threw a kunai at him. Mizuki dropped the Henge and demanded, "How did you know that I wasn't Iruka?"

Naruto answered, "Because, I'm Iruka," as he dropped the Henge, transforming back into Iruka.

Mizuki scoffed and rhetorically asked, "How could I have been fooled by such a cheap trick?"

"Because, Mizuki, you've always viewed yourself as superior, and, I admit, you were for a very long time. But you stopped trying to improve your skills. That's why you've failed."

"What are you saying?"

"Just what I said. You are no longer strong enough to keep up with me, nor, apparently, Naruto."

"Don't delude yourself Iruka, he's just a beast, led solely by instinct, and that instinct is, due to this stupid village, most probably rage, which will eventually lead to the desire to exact revenge against those that denied his existence and he'll use the power of that scroll to do so."

"You might be right..." Naruto, who had hid his presence nearby, heard the conversation between the two Chuunin and, hearing Iruka's reply a stream of tears started running down his right cheek. "...but Naruto isn't like that..." the tears in Naruto's eyes stopped flowing as he heard Iruka defend him against Mizuki's accusations. "...he is Uzumaki Naruto of Konohagakure."

"Ridiculous," Mizuki said, "the Sandaime's bullshit philosophy has clouded your mind. As such I will do you a favour and put you out of your misery." Mizuki then took another large shuriken from his back and, this time weakly channelled some of his chakra into it. He then threw it at Iruka, the chakra flowing through it speeding it up.

As Iruka stood there like a fish in a net as the shuriken flew towards him. Naruto though wasn't going to sit around while Iruka was chopped in two. He withdrew two of his Takigakure style kunai from his kunai holster and said, "Suiton: Hien," as he covered his blades in water to both lengthen them and as a way to counteract the chakra that was flowing through the oncoming shuriken. When the shuriken was nearly upon them Naruto stepped forward, thrusting the kunai at the shuriken, the unique shape stopping the rotation of the shuriken and the Suiton chakra flowing through the kunai reinforcing them to be able to handle the stress of the impact. Naruto then took the scroll off of his back as he said, "Alright, I've had just about enough of this," looking up at Mizuki, enraged at the continued attacks against both Iruka and himself. He let the scroll drop onto the ground as he made a handseal as he said, "Kage Bunshin." To both Mizuki and Iruka's surprise, after Naruto announced the technique that he had learned from the scroll the clearing was covered in Naruto's. Naruto said, "Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba," and as he did a sword of hardened water appeared in his right hand, then he swung the water sword down and to the right as he said "Takigakure-Ryū: Shui-sa." The next thing that Mizuki knew was that he couldn't move a muscle as he got pummelled by the many clones that Naruto had created.

Iruka, having fallen to the ground in shock at the jutsu that Naruto had been using throughout the fight against Mizuki, asked, "What did you...when did you..."

Naruto sighed and said, "It would take a very long time to explain, and don't we have a scroll to take back to the Hokage?"

Iruka smiled and said, "You're right, although there is one thing that I need to do before we do that."

Naruto frowned in confusion as he asked, "What is that?"

"Close your eyes."

"Huh...why?" Naruto asked.

Iruka smiled and said, "Just do it."

Naruto said, "Well, alright," and closed his eyes.

Iruka, unbeknownst to Naruto, took off his Hitai-ate and tied it around Naruto's forehead. He said, "Alright, you can open your eyes now."

Naruto opened his eyes and saw that Iruka didn't have his headband on and felt his own forehead, feeling the Hitai-ate on his head he said, "Thank you Iruka-sensei." With that done Iruka picked the scroll up off the ground and headed to the Hokage's office.

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Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, the Sandaime picked up a headset and said into the microphone "attention, all units, there is no longer any need to continue searching for Uzumaki Naruto. The situation has been resolved." Through the headset the Sandaime heard cries of 'hai, Hokage-sama.' The Sandaime thought to himself '_well, thankfully the nights excitement is over without anything too serious happening. I don't think that even I could have handled it if the Kyuubi had somehow gotten free...damn that traitorous Mizuki. Ah well, I suppose that I should have someone go retrieve him._' The Sandaime turned to one of the ANBU that he kept stationed in his office and said "Neko, I would like you to go and retrieve the traitor in training ground one and take him to Konoha Strict Correctional Facility."

Neko bowed her head as she said "Hai, Sandaime-sama," she then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

When Naruto and Iruka got to the Hokage's office Naruto got a tongue lashing about shinobi needing to be able to read underneath the underneath, but other than that there were no punitive actions taken against him, due to his uncovering a traitor to the village. The Sandaime also classified the entire incident an S-Class secret not to be talked about with anyone other than the people that currently are aware of it. The Sandaime also gave both Naruto and Iruka the pay equivalent to that of an A-Rank mission. They were then dismissed, Naruto receiving orders to attend the team placement session at the academy the next day.

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Authors Notes:

Suiton: Mizurappa – Water gushes out from the mouth like a waterfall and washes away the enemy. One can freely control the power of this technique with the amount chakra one releases.

Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba – originally an Uzumaki Clan jutsu in recent years it had gained widespread recognition as a secret technique of Takigakure that allows the user to manipulate water into the form of a sword. This sword is also shown to be very resilient as it is able to withstand and cut through most Fire Release techniques.

Takigakure-Ryū: Shui-sa – when the user swings their Mizukiri no Yaiba down and to the right it immediately paralyses the opponent upon sight

Suiton: Hien – An addition-line ninjutsu that augments the killing power of a blade, like a kunai or sword, by flowing chakra into it.

Kage Bunshin – if you don't know what this jutsu is then I'm not going to tell you.

Kage kunai – a variation of the Kage Shuriken technique


	11. Team 7

The next day Naruto entered the classroom with his Hitai-ate attached to the ice-blue headband that Hiroke had given him prior to his returning to Konoha. He was also wearing the set of clothes that Nanami and her teammates had given him. When he entered the classroom, looking very much like a ninja, Inuzuka Kiba yelled out, "Hey, what the hell are you doing her Naruto?"

Naruto calmly replied "I thought that the reason that I am here should be quite obvious, even to you dog-breath."

Kiba loudly growled out, "What was that?"

"Do you want me to repeat it?" after a short pause Naruto said, "alright then, I thought that the fact that I clearly passed," Naruto gestured at his Hitai-ate, "should be quite clear, even to you, dog-breath."

Kiba said, "That's it," as he got up, out of his seat, to attack Naruto for his perceived insolence.

Luckily for Kiba Iruka came into the class in the nick of time as Naruto was withdrawing a kunai from his kunai holster attached to his right leg. Iruka, seeing what was happening, shouted, "Alright, that's enough, everyone back in your seats." The Genin-hopefuls returned to the seats that they normally used and Iruka sat down at his desk at the front of the room. Iruka said, "As you may have noticed, Naruto is here because he passed a special test that was run later that day, now, on to the team assignments." Iruka shuffled through a few sheets of paper until he found the one that he was looking for and placed it back on top of the pile of papers. He announced the teams (the same as in the series) and said, "Right, now you just have to wait here for the Jounin that will be in charge of you for the next stage of your career."

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No less than three hours later Team Seven was still waiting in the classroom for the Jounin that was to lead their squad. Naruto got extremely bored and decided that it would be a good idea to set a trap for Kakashi, but before he could even start setting it up Kakashi came into the room and said "Right, Team Seven, yes?"

Sakura replied, "Uh huh."

Kakashi said, "Good, what do you say we go up to the roof for this next bit?" before disappearing in a cloud of smoke (1).

As Naruto left the room he said, "Geez, some leader, makes up wait over three hours and then up and disappears on us, looks like we lucked out."

Sakura said, "Oi Naruto, he's a Jounin, he must have had some reason for being so late." Then she thought '_at least he better._'

Sasuke meanwhile kept up his silent act.

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When they got to the rooftop they saw that Kakashi was sitting on a stool opposite a chair that had clearly been rigged up solely for the occasion. Naruto asked "hey, Kakashi, what took ya so long in getting to the meeting?"

"Oh, you want to know do you?" Kakashi asked in a sly kind of way.

"Yeah," Naruto replied in an equally sardonic tone.

"Well, you see I got lost on the road of life."

"Huh? That's the best that you could do?"

"Well, anyway. Since we're going to be a team for a while I think that we should probably start off with introductions, how about ladies first?"

"Uhh...geez, I don't know. What should I tell you about?" Sakura asked, unsure of how to continue.

"Well, how about your likes, dislikes, dreams for the future, hobbies, that kind of thing."

Naruto piped up and asked, "Well, instead of us, why don't you go first, so that we can see how it's supposed to work?"

"Me? Well, alright. I'm Hatake Kakashi, things I like, things I hate...I don't feel like telling you that. My dreams for the future...never really thought about it, as for hobbies...I have lots of hobbies."

Sakura looked at Sasuke and Naruto and said, "Well that was totally useless, all he really told us was his name."

Naruto nodded and Kakashi said, "Okay, your turn, you on the right."

"Alright then," Naruto said, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I like instant ramen and the ramen from Ichiraku Ramen Stand, I also like Amayah-nee, I hate the three minutes it takes to heat the ramen. My hobby is eating all different types of ramen and comparing them and my dream is to be greater than all the previous Hokage, then the village will treat me with respect."

Kakashi thought '_well well, he's grown up in a very interesting way._' He then said "alright, next."

Sakura said "I'm Haruno Sakura, what I like...uh...I mean the person I like...is..." she blushed and glanced at Sasuke. "My hobby is..." she continued glancing at Sasuke. "My dream for the future is..." Sakura squealed as she scrunched her eyes up.

Kakashi asked "and, what do you hate?"

Sakura stated, with utmost conviction, "Naruto."

Naruto said, "Ah who cares."

As Naruto was exclaiming his disinterest in what Sakura thought of him, Kakashi tiredly thought '_girls her age are more interested in boys than in ninja training._' He then said, "Okay, last one."

Sasuke, taking on a tone that screamed 'everyone is below my almighty notice', said, "My name is Uchiha Sasuke, I hate a lot of things and I don't particularly like anything." As Sasuke was introducing himself Sakura was eagerly hanging onto his every word. "What I have is not a _dream_ as I will make it a _reality_, I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone."

Sakura thought '_Sasuke is sooo hot!_'

Kakashi thought, '_I thought as much._' He then said, "Good you are each unique and you have your own ideas, we have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto asked "a mission, so soon?"

"Yes, it's a task that the four of us will do together."

"Okay, what is it, not some lame-ass D-Rank mission is it? I've had just about enough of them for a lifetime."

Kakashi thought, '_How does Naruto know about the bane of a ninja's life, the dreaded D-Rank missions. Well, never mind._' Kakashi said, "No, it's even better, a survival exercise."

Naruto thought '_a survival exercise, why do I get the feeling that there's going to be some kind of catch to this?_'

As Naruto was coming up with possible implications of what Kakashi was telling them, Sakura asked, "A survival exercise? Weren't we meant to leave all that kind of stuff back in the academy? That's how we got here."

"This will be nothing like your previous training."

"Uhh...how will it be any different sensei?" Kakashi started laughing to himself, causing Sakura to ask, "Hey, that's a normal question, what the hell's so funny?"

Kakashi mocked, "Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." He continued to laugh for a while before saying, "In actual fact, only nine of the twenty-seven graduates will actually become Genin. The other eighteen will be weeded out and sent back to the academy, in other words, this exam will determine your fate, keep in mind, the failure rate is 66%."

Sakura asked "so if we need to do another test with you now, then what was the point in having the test that we just did yesterday?"

"That was to see who had the potential to become Genin."

"Huh?"

"I have final say as to whether you enter the ranks of the Konohagakure Shinobi, or return to the academy. Meet me at the designated training ground at 7 o'clock tomorrow morning. And bring your ninja gear."

Sakura thought '_if I fail then I'll be separated from Sasuke. This is a trial of love._'

Sasuke thought '_there's no way that I'll be going back to that academy._'

Naruto meanwhile was thinking more clearly than the other two. Naruto thought '_what's with that 66% failure rate? There's got to be some meaning behind it, but what?_'

Kakashi started to walk towards the side of the building but, before he left, he turned and said, "Well, later..." he started to walk further before he turned once more and said, "Oh yes, you might want to skip breakfast tomorrow, otherwise you might throw up," he then jumped off the edge of the building.

Sakura and Sasuke thought '_what the hell kind of test is this going to be._'

Naruto, for his part, thought, "Well, I better come prepared for anything."

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Author's Notes:

(1) Shunshin


	12. The Bell Test  Naruto

The next day Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura met up at seven o'clock at training ground just as they had been requested, Kakashi wasn't. After about an hour Sakura went over to Sasuke and asked "so, Kakashi-sensei hasn't shown up for an hour past the time that he said, so do you want to go and get something to eat...you know, like a da..."

Sasuke looked at Sakura and simply said, "No. He told us to be here so we will just have to wait until he arrives."

Naruto, who had been quiet the entire time, sighed and loudly said, "Well, if he's not gonna show then I'm going to sleep," looking at the spot where Kakashi was hiding. He then lay down and promptly went back to sleep.

Kakashi, from his spot, thought, '_he couldn't possibly know where I am, could he?_'

Sakura rushed over to Naruto's location, bent down so she was next to his ear and screamed, "Wake the hell up Naruto, what'll you do if Kakashi-sensei gets here and he finds you asleep?"

Naruto rubbed his ear, as if trying to stop a ringing noise, and said, "Who knows, I'll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, I'm tired." That didn't entirely sit well with Sakura, who proceeded to raise her foot above Naruto's head and bring it down. To her utmost annoyance Naruto just rolled to the right, completely avoiding her stomp. After Naruto avoided her first attempt Sakura repeatedly attempted to, literally, stomp Naruto into the ground. Each time she tried though Naruto just rolled either left or right, causing Sakura to become more and more annoyed at her blonde teammate. Naruto, eyes still closed, asked, "Okay, I've avoided all your kicks, can you let me go to sleep now?"

Sakura growled and announced, "Naruto, I'm going to kill you!"

Naruto opened a single eye, looked at Sakura, and said, "You can't. Not with your level of skill. Heh, even your precious Uchiha wouldn't have a chance."

"What was that?" Sakura demanded, furious at having her crush insulted in such a way.

Sakura gathered up all of her chakra into her hand and started to bring it down on Naruto's stomach. Before she could finish the punch though Naruto caught her arm when her fist was about fifteen centimetres away from him, he said, "I thought I told you, you can't even hit me, let alone kill me."

As Naruto finished proving just how far above her in skill he was Sakura let go of the chakra in her fist and asked, "Wha...but that's not..."

"Possible? I wasn't allowed to use my full skills during the academy. You can thank Mizuki for that. You might want to keep that in mind."

Kakashi thought '_I wonder just who he was referring to, either way, it's obvious now that he is aware of my presence._'

Naruto said, "Alright, now, back to sleep," as Sakura moved away from him. Naruto fell asleep right away.

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Three hours later Kakashi walked up to them from down the street. Sakura yelled out "Your late!"

"Yes well, you see there was this black cat on the way and, as you know, black cats can cause bad luck so I had to take a detour around the block. Then, whilst on the detour I saw a cart turned over so, naturally, I assisted the carts owners in righting the cart and replacing all of the spilled goods in it. After that there was this old lady that had her cat, an orange tabby cat, stuck up a tree, so of course I played the good Samaritan and helped it down. Then I came here."

Sakura yelled, "Liar!"

Naruto just sighed at the act that their Jounin-sensei was putting on. He said, "Look, can we just get on with this test already?"

"Very well then," Kakashi said, seeing that Sasuke wasn't going to say anything. Kakashi then moved to one of the three posts that were set up in the training ground and placed an alarm clock on it. He then pushed a button on the top that started its countdown and said, "It's set for noon." He then turned to look back at Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura and, holding up two bells, said, "your assignment is very simple, you just have to take these bells from me, that's all there is to it. If you can't get them by noon you go without lunch. You'll be tied to those posts to watch while I eat my lunch in front of you."

Sasuke thought '_so that's why...'_

Sakura finished his thought, thinking, '_he told us to skip breakfast, to make it harder on us._' She then said, "hold on a sec, there's three of us. So why are there only two bells?"

Kakashi replied, "Oh, that would be so that at least one of you will be tied to the posts and ultimately disqualified due to failing to complete the mission. That one also goes back to the academy...then again, by the same token, all three of you could flunk out too. You can use any weapons that you like, including shuriken. If you aren't prepared to kill me, then you won't be able to take the bells."

Sakura exclaimed, "But those weapons are too dangerous sensei!"

"When I say start, you can begin." Naruto withdrew a kunai and charged at Kakashi, who caught his hand, just as he had caught Sakura's before. Kakashi then bent the hand that was holding the kunai back, behind Naruto. He said, "don't be in such a hurry, I didn't even say 'start' yet."

Sakura thought, "_So fast! I didn't even see him move!_"

Sasuke thought, '_So, this is a Jounin._'

"But you did come at me with the intention of killing me, so I think I might actually be starting to like you guys." He let Naruto go and waited for him to go back to where Sasuke and Sakura were and said, "alright, get ready...and, start." While Sasuke and Sakura jumped into the forest and hid, rather unsuccessfully, Naruto stayed where he was in the clearing. Kakashi said, "You know, compared to the others, you're a little...weird." Kakashi thought '_even so, if he could sense my presence before, then there is far more to him than what his scores at the academy...wait a second...when he was talking to Sakura before I think he said something about not being allowed to use all his skills during his time at the academy._' Naruto charged at Kakashi the same way that he did before and Kakashi also reacted exactly the same as he did the first time, this time though, he said, "you really shouldn't keep trying the same things over and over."

Naruto smirked and asked, "Who said I was?"

Just then Kakashi felt Naruto gather chakra to the hand that was holding his kunai in. Kakashi thought '_what is he..._' as Naruto manipulated his chakra's nature into water Kakashi's eyes widened, stunned that Naruto could do such a thing, and not wanting to find out what he was planning to do with it, let go of Naruto's hand and jumped away. What Kakashi hadn't noticed until he had jumped away from Naruto though, was that Naruto had actually already formed one Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba and, while it was still forming, used it to cut the bells from Kakashi's belt. As Kakashi let go of Naruto's hand Naruto spun around, lowering himself to the ground and picked up the bells that he had cut from Kakashi's belt and, while he was still spinning, put them in his kunai pouch. When he had finished his spin Naruto had risen up to his normal, standing height. Kakashi moved his hand to check if the bells were still attached to his belt and, feeling that they weren't, thought '_when did..._'

"It was before I gathered my chakra into my hand."

"What?" Kakashi asked, frowning.

In the bushes Sakura was thinking, '_what just happened...and what is that jutsu that Naruto is using?_'

While Sasuke thought '_what the hell was that? When did that Naruto learn to do something like that?_'

Kakashi however, was thinking, not on what the jutsu that Naruto was using was, or even when, as it was clear, at least to him, that Naruto had known it for years, but on how he learnt it, '_how could Naruto know how to use a hidden jutsu from Takigakure? It's just not...wait a second...that kunai that Naruto is holding...it's..._' he then asked "alright Naruto, who do you know in Takigakure?"

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto replied in a tone that screamed 'I'm lying.'

"Don't lie to me, that jutsu that you just used is only known to shinobi from Takigakure, those kunai that you're using are also from that village, and, if I didn't know better, I'd say that that headband you're wearing is from there too."

"Yes well, I'm sorry but I can't tell you that."

"Is that so?"

"Yes," Naruto replied as he ran towards the lake that was nearby.

Kakashi thought '_I can't let him get there!_'

As Naruto got to the lake he turned to Kakashi and said, "Too late," as he went through some hand seals and said, "Mizugakure," before disappearing in a splash of water.

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in the Hokage's office the Sandaime Hokage was watching Kakashi's test with great interest as, ever since Naruto had returned, he had only ever seen him using the skills that he learned with Amayah once and he couldn't get him to tell him what he learnt either as Naruto repeatedly claimed 'information is a vital part of a Shinobi's life and, right now, there is no need for you to know'. Iruka was also there, having seen Naruto in action he wanted to see how he handled training with Kakashi. The Sandaime said, "I must say, even with the training that Naruto received from Amayah, I never would have expected him to be able to do something like that."

"Amayah?" Iruka asked, unsure of who the Sandaime Hokage was referring to.

"Ah yes, you don't know, do you?"

"Know? Know what?"

"Before Naruto enrolled in the academy a request came from one Uzumaki Amayah, a Jounin from Takigakure, to be able to give Naruto some training, apparently with a great deal of success."

"Uzumaki? Is she a relative of Naruto's?"

"I don't really know."

"Wait a second, Uzumaki Amayah, haven't I heard the name before somewhere?"

"I would be surprised if you hadn't. She's also known as Taki no Shinku Shinsui(1)."

Iruka's eyes widened in shock, he asked, "no way?"

"Yes. I'm not sure, but if what you said about his eyes changing colour the other night is true, it is possible that he also received training from Taki no Kogamo Gen'ei."

Iruka, stunned, asked, "Both of them?"

"Yes, and if that's true then Team Seven is in for a rude awakening."

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Meanwhile, back in Training Ground Three, Kakashi was thinking out loud, "Well well, Uzumaki Naruto...It's obvious that you have had practice fighting against at the very least a Chuunin level shinobi before now, probably a Jounin too. I wonder who, obviously no one in Konoha. Ah well, that's a mystery for another day. For now I need to get those bells back." Five minutes later Kakashi found Naruto sitting against a tree and said "alright Naruto, give me the bells back, you've passed the test, now I need to test Sasuke and Sakura."

"Hmm, sure, why not?" Naruto asked as he retrieved two bells from his kunai pouch and threw them to Kakashi.

"Thank you," Kakashi said as he thought, '_well, looks like I'm going to have to fail him after all, giving me the bells just because I asked, really._' He then jumped off, leaving Naruto alone.

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Author's Notes:

(1) Taki no Shinku Shinsui - Takigakure's Crimson Flood  
>(2) Taki no Kogamo Gen'ei - Takigakure's Teal Illusion<p> 


	13. The Bell Test  Sakura

Soon enough Kakashi found Sakura and appeared in front of her in a whirlwind of leaves. Sakura shrieked in surprise, not knowing that Kakashi was nearing her. Kakashi went through some handseals and said, "Magen: Narakumi."

As she was engulfed by a whirlwind of leaves, similar to how Kakashi had appeared in front of her, she recognised the genjutsu used against her and did her own set of handseals and said, "Magen: Soukan(1)." During the casting of the genjutsu Sakura messed up and, instead of casting it on Kakashi, cast it on herself instead, causing her to see Sasuke in a Bishounen scene. A geyser of blood shot from her nose, sending her flying from her position.

Kakashi shook his head in consternation at what had just happened and jumped off, thinking, '_well, at least she knows an interesting jutsu...fail. Now, where has Sasuke gotten too I wonder?_'

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Authors Notes

(1) Magen: Soukan – Demonic Illusion: Magnificent View

I apologise for the size of this chapter, but I am aiming to do one shinobi's fight per chapter and, while Sakura does know more about genjutsu at this stage, I just can't picture her as being in Sasuke's league, let alone Naruto's. As such I was unable to extend the chapter anymore than it is. If anyone has any idea as to how it would be possible, please let me know via a message.


	14. The Bell Test  Sasuke

Soon enough Kakashi found Sasuke standing in a clearing, waiting for Kakashi. When Kakashi jumped down, off the tree branch, Sasuke saw the bells on Kakashi's belt and said, "I see that you got the bells back. I guess Naruto just wasn't good enough after all." Sasuke scoffed and continued, "What _was_ I thinking, why should I ask Naruto for that weird jutsu that he used."

"Well, even if you did Sasuke, the chances of Naruto teaching it to you are very slim. Even if he did, the chances that you could actually use it are even slimmer."

Sasuke frowned, as he demanded, "What? Why wouldn't I be able to use a jutsu that that...that dobe can use?"

Kakashi replied, "I don't like the tone that you are using Sasuke. But I will answer your question for you, even though, as an Uchiha, you have probably already been told this. Each person has affinities towards a chakra nature type. There has not been one Uchiha in the history of Konoha that has been able to utilise Suiton jutsu. You are no different."

"Then why is the dobe able to?"

"Like I said, each person has an affinity with a nature type, the Uchiha have always been extremely proficient Katon jutsu users, that's why the ability to use Katon: Gōkakyū became a kind of coming of age jutsu. Naruto descends from the Uzumaki clan..."

"Wait! Naruto is part of a clan?"

Kakashi thought '_oh shit, I shouldn't have said that!_' Kakashi then said, "Well, he would have been had they not been wiped out about fifty years ago."

"I see," Sasuke said, satisfied that the blonde would be receiving no further coaching from whoever it was that taught him that weird Suiton ninjutsu.

"Anyway, the Uzumaki clan are geared towards Suiton jutsu. If the legends are true, and I have no idea if they are or not, Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba, the jutsu that Naruto used to get the bells from me, was originally a jutsu used exclusively by the Uzumaki clan."

"Wait, so if the Uzumaki have been exterminated then how does..."

"I have no idea, but it is one of the first things that I intend to find out from the Hokage after this test is done, whatever the result."

"Well, be sure to tell me when you do."

Kakashi sighed and said, "You need to have your attitude adjusted Sasuke."

"I don't think so. After all, I'm different from those two."

Kakashi said, "Well, that's true," referring to Sasuke's attitude rather than his skill. Sasuke then threw three shuriken at Kakashi, causing him to move out of the way. "There's no use using normal attacks Sasuke." Sasuke smirked as he withdrew another and threw it past Kakashi's head, causing thirty kunai to launch at Kakashi, who stated the obvious, "a trap!" as he got out of the way of them. When Kakashi came to a stop Sasuke appeared by his side, kicking at his face. Kakashi brought his right hand up to block the punch and his left to brace his right. After he blocked the kick Kakashi turned his right hand around, catching hold of Sasuke's right foot. Sasuke then used a right hook aimed at Kakashi's face, which was caught and moved out of the way. Sasuke then tried to kick him on top of his head, but Kakashi brought his right hand up, blocking that too. Sasuke then used his free, left, hand to reach for the bells. Kakashi thought '_oh damn, not again!_' before he dropped Sasuke's limbs and moved away from Sasuke. Kakashi sighed and said, "It would appear that there is a reason that you were awarded rookie of the year. With you I won't have time to read Make Out Paradise." Sasuke went through a set of handseals and said, "Katon: Gōkakyū," breathing a massive ball of flame at Kakashi when he finished. Kakashi's eyes widened as he moved out of the way of Sasuke's jutsu, thinking, '_Naruto aside there's no way that a Genin should have enough chakra to use that jutsu._'

When the flames died down Sasuke saw that Kakashi wasn't there and asked himself, "did I incinerate him? No, not possible. So is he left?" Sasuke looked left, "No, right?" Sasuke looked right, seeing Kakashi not there he looked skywards, "he's not up there either, which means that he's..."

"Below you," Kakashi said as he grabbed Sasuke's right ankle from underground. "Doton: Shinjū Zanshu." As Kakashi rose up, out of the ground, Sasuke was forced under it. Kakashi said, "I think that that should help you realise just where you stand in the scale of things. Keep this in mind Sasuke, while it's true that had Naruto not received prior training you would be a head above the rest, he, like you, did. The only difference between the two of you is your attitude."

"I'm the last Uchiha, the last of my clan, I deserve to have everything that I want."

"And that, Sasuke, is why you are now down there, and I'm up here. Tell you what, I'll give you a hand out of there, how does that sound?"

"Good," Sasuke said as he thought, '_when he gets me out I'll just take those bells of his._' Needless to say that he was stunned when Kakashi said, "There you go," leaving two spoons in front of his face. Sasuke demanded, "What the hell am I supposed to do with these things?"

"That's up to you," Kakashi said, walking towards the clearing where they had started the test. When all of a sudden the alarm clock rang out; Kakashi looked back at Sasuke and said, "Well, looks like your time's up anyway. So, here you go." Kakashi went through some handseals, stamped his right foot on the ground, and said, "Doton: Ōkibo Kussaku," causing Sasuke to be pushed up, out of the ground.

While they were on their silent way back Kakashi and Sasuke happened upon an unconscious Sakura, whom they picked up and Kakashi slung her over his shoulder. Soon enough they arrived at the clearing that they had started at, only to see Naruto sitting on top of the centre post, dangling his legs down. Kakashi said, "Well well, it seems like someone got here early."

Naruto said, "I don't think that you can comment on timeliness Kakashi-sensei."

"Yes well, maybe so," Kakashi said as he appeared behind Naruto, pushed him off of the post that he was sitting on and tying him up with ninja-wire.

Naruto exclaimed, "What? Why the hell am I tied up? I got the bells from you."

"Yes, but you don't have any now, do you?" Naruto growled. Kakashi turned to Sakura and said, "Sakura, you were far too reckless using whatever that jutsu that you used was. If you use a jutsu, then you need to make sure that you cast it correctly. You need to be even more careful when it comes to genjutsu." Kakashi turned to Sasuke and said, "Sasuke, you were far too overconfident in your approach. You may have been the strongest fighter in the academy, but you had yet to fight an opponent who is of Jounin level and thus your tactics were insufficient."

"What was that?" Sasuke demanded.

"You know what, I was going to give you another chance, but I no longer think that that's necessary."

"Then we pass?" Sakura asked, thinking '_if we all pass then this test was easier than I thought._'

"All three of you..."

Sasuke smirked while Sakura started jumping for joy. Naruto though had a bad feeling in his stomach and thought '_I don't like the look of this._'

"...are being dropped from the ninja program."

Naruto and Sasuke's eyes widened in confusion and fear at the prospect of never becoming ninja while Sakura said, "You can't do that, changing the rules after they have been set is unfair!" while she thought, '_if we get dropped from the program I'll never get to see Sasuke again, oh how can fate be so cruel to one such as I?_'

"Yes, I can Sakura, I set the rules and you follow them. That's how this test works. All three of you have no future as ninja."

"But why?"

"Because, none of you think like ninja, you think like little kids, like brats."

Sasuke didn't like Kakashi stepping all over his pride by calling him a brat and charged at Kakashi. Kakashi tripped Sasuke and stepped on his back. Sakura started pulling on her hair, wailing, "Hey! You can't step on Sasuke like he's a bug!"

Kakashi glared at Sakura and said, "You don't know what it means to be a ninja, you think that it's all just a big game, huh?"

Sakura looked at Kakashi in surprise while Naruto thought, "_Well, that's a wakeup call that I thought that Sakura would never get, Sasuke too_."

"Why do you think that we put you in squads, did you even consider that question for one moment?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"I mean that none of you realised what this test was all about, you never even came close."

"What it's about?"

"Yes, that's what determines whether you pass or fail."

"But that's... I wanted to ask you about that from the beginning."

Kakashi asked, "Three people to a squad, why do you think that we do that?"

Sakura demanded, "How should we know that, we didn't decide that."

"It's so basic. Teamwork," Kakashi said.

"All three of us together?"

"Yes, if you had done that, you may have been able to take at least one of the bells. Well, at any rate, it's over."

Naruto smirked and said, "Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba," forming a sword of hardened water in his right hand. He swung it down and to the right as he said, "Takigakure-Ryū: Shui-sa." The next thing Kakashi knew his limbs were completely paralysed. Then, after Kakashi could no longer move, Naruto said, "release," causing a cloud of smoke to expand from Kakashi's waist. With the clone no longer transformed into a bell, it pushed Kakashi off of Sasuke, cutting the remaining bell from Kakashi's belt. The clone helped a confused Sasuke up and gave him the bell.

After Kakashi released himself from the paralysing genjutsu he looked at Naruto and demanded, "when did you... no, obviously it was before you gave me the bells back. So where is the other one?"

Naruto looked at Sakura and said, "Sakura, if you'd like to reach into my kunai pouch?" Sakura did so, retrieving the bell. Naruto looked at Kakashi and said, "So, now we pass, right?"

Kakashi's eyes widened and said, "Well, I suppose that I have no choice now then, do I? You are all dismissed. Meet at ten o'clock tomorrow at the Hokage Tower. We'll receive our first mission then."

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Five minutes later, in the Hokage's office, Kakashi slammed his hands on the Hokage's desk, demanding, "Exactly what just happened? I was not expecting one of my Genin to be on a level equivalent to a high Chuunin shinobi and certainly not Naruto."

"So, you were expecting Sasuke to be stronger were you?"

"Yes, far stronger as a matter of fact."

"I see, well then, too bad."

Kakashi sighed and said, "What jutsu does Naruto know?"

"Honestly, I've no idea."

"What?"

"Whenever I've asked he's always said that 'information is the lifeblood of a shinobi and, right now, you don't need to know."

"But surely you could order him to..."

"Well, he was a civilian at the time and so not subject to my jurisdiction and I'm tempted to keep on humouring him, after all, there's nothing that pleases you more when you get to be my age than being surprised by something. Besides, sometimes it's good to taste defeat."

"Well, Naruto's ninjutsu aside, there's no way that, with his chakra level, should Naruto be able to perform genjutsu."

"Well, I'm sure that a lot of people have said that about Taki no Shinku Shinsui."

"So Naruto was trained in Takigakure then?"

"Yes."

"And by the Taki no Shinku Shinsui no less?"

"Yes, she saw Naruto come in asking for training one day and, almost ordered me to allow her to supply it."

Kakashi thought, '_That's no good, I can no longer carry out the councils bidding in regards to Naruto's strength, but I _can_ raise Sasuke's; Although I have no desire to incur the wrath of Amayah._'

"Well, if that's all...?"

"Yes," Kakashi replied, "that's all. Oh yes, I do have one question, even if Naruto was trained before entering the academy, how does Naruto know about the bane of a ninja's life, the dreaded D-Rank missions?"

"Well, apparently Naruto finished the training that Amayah had planned for him in record time, leaving three months before he was scheduled to return to Konoha, knowing of Naruto's troubles with prices here Amayah organised some D-Rank missions for him to go on."

"Wait a second..." Kakashi laughingly said, "...are you trying to tell me that _Naruto_ is able to sit the Chuunin exam already?"

"Yes, according to the note that Amayah sent with Naruto when he returned, he has been entitled to sit it for over three years now."

"But, if Naruto received training how could he have come last in his class?"

"Well, Naruto did tell you that they wouldn't allow him to use any of his usual ninja tools, right?"

"Well yes."

"And as you said, genjutsu should be beyond Naruto. Of course that means that the simple Bunshin jutsu, used as an introduction to genjutsu, should be far beyond his abilities."

"Well, good day Hokage-sama."

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Authors Notes

(1) l

Attacks

Katon: Gōkakyū = Fire release: Great Fireball

Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba = Takigakure Style: Watercutting Sword

Doton: Ōkibo Kussaku = Earth release: Great Excavation

Aliases

Taki no Shinku Shinsui = Takigakure's Crimson Flood


	15. C Rank

Three weeks later Naruto was well and truly fed up with the D-Rank missions that they had been receiving. When they arrived in the Hokage's office with the Daimyo's wife's cat, 'Tora', for the third time, Naruto dumped the cat on the ground and did a few handseals before tapping it on its collar. Naruto then took twenty seals that he had created beforehand and went to the client and said, "Since, I have no desire to go chasing after 'Tora' _again_, on behalf of the Shinobi of Konohagakure I would like to present you with these seals," Naruto handed her the seals that he had created. "They work in conjunction with the seal that I just placed on your cats collar. Place them on the windows and doors in your house and, the next time that he tries to escape it will be sent to sleep, thereby saving you a lot of worry and us a lot of time."

"Why thank you young man, how kind of you," the daimyo's wife said as she took Tora into her arms in a bear hug.

The Sandaime Hokage thought, '_Great, now we need to come up with another way to test Genin teams' readiness to take on tougher missions,'_ before saying, "Well now, for another mission we have weeding the Yamanaka's' garden, assisting Kyoko Ayasegawa with her shopping or maybe..."

Kakashi, seeing the 'tick' marks appear on Naruto and Sasuke's foreheads and Sakura's mouth starting to twitch in anger, said, "Uh, maybe it's time that you let them take on a higher ranking mission."

Hiruzen looked at the three irate Genin and thought to himself, '_Hmm... it might be a good idea to let them get a feel for the real world,_' before saying, "Alright then, I think that I remember seeing a mission around here somewhere..." Hiruzen ruffled through his papers for a minute before finding the mission that he sought. "Right, here we are. You are to protect a bridge builder on his way home to the Land of Wave and until the bridge is completed."

Naruto smiled as he thought, '_Finally, you just wait and see Old Man, and I'll finish this mission no sweat, no doubt._'

Sasuke thought, '_Finally, a real mission that will let me test my stuff outside of this village._'

Sakura thoughts ran along a different line though, they were, '_I get to spend time with Sasuke-kun outside the village! Hah, take that Ino-pig!_'

Hiruzen said, "Alright Tazuna, you may enter."

When Tazuna entered the room he looked on at what was happening and commented, "Well, this is just great," he looked at Hiruzen and said, "you _must_ be joking Hiruzen. There's no way that I can trust my life to these children."

Naruto quickly drew one of his kunai and let it fly, embedding itself into the far wall in the reception area. Naruto said, "You don't need to trust us, only trust that we know what we're doing," as the rope that was tied around Tazuna's head got cut in half.

Kakashi looked at Naruto and said, "Naruto, the idea is to protect the client from danger, not cause it." Kakashi then looked at Tazuna before saying, "well, Naruto aside, the rest of us will protect you to the utmost of our abilities, plus, even if there are enemies that they can't defeat, I am a Jounin and more than capable enough to handle any enemies that we may come across on a mission such as this one."

"Yes well, you had better."

Kakashi said, "Alright then team, meet up at the northern gates in an hour."

As Team 7 walked away Hiruzen said, "Kakashi, I would like for you to stay here for a few minutes." Kakashi stopped where he was and turned back around to face the Hokage. Hiruzen asked, "Kakashi, why did you tell the client that Naruto would not protect him to the best of his abilities?"

"Because, I don't know the extent of his abilities, hell, I had no idea until a few minutes ago that Naruto could use Fūinjutsu at all, let alone devise seals that worked in conjunction with each other."

"You of all people should be well aware of the Fūinjutsu skills that are inherent in all Uzumaki, Naruto more than most with his father's mastery of that particular art as well as his mother. Hell, Fūinjutsu is practically embedded within his DNA."

"Yes well I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised," Kakashi said as he thought, '_damn it, I have little skill in Fūinjutsu and the only Konoha shinobi that has any real skills in it isn't here right now, although, even if Jiraiya _was_ here, the chances of him taking Sasuke as an apprentice in Fūinjutsu is probably pretty low._' "Well, if that's all then I'll need to go and get my things for a mission outside the village."

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An hour later Tazuna met Team 7 near the Konoha Northern Gates. When he was two feet away he said, "Well well, I'm surprised that you showed up blondie."

"I'd be more surprised if Kakashi actually showed up on time."

"Did I hear someone say my name?" Kakashi asked, appearing from a blind corner.

"Oh my god!" Naruto melodramatically stated. "Kakashi is on time." Naruto then squatted down, covering his head with his arms.

Sakura asked, "What are you doing Naruto?"

"Watch out Sakura, the world is about to end!"

"Huh?"

"Well, can you think of another reason that Kakashi would be on time?" Sakura thought for a moment before joining Naruto on the ground.

Kakashi looked between the two and thought, '_well, at least now I know what they think of me, at least Sasuke..._' Kakashi looked at Sasuke, who had also joined Naruto and Sakura, preparing for the sky to fall down on top of them. Kakashi had a sweatdrop appear on the side of his head before saying, "well, now that I'm here we can leave."

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Two hours later Team 7 was crossing a small wooden bridge when Sakura looked up at Tazuna and asked, "Hey, you're from the Land of Waves, right?"

"Yes, that's right, why do you ask?"

Sakura turned to Kakashi and asked, "Kakashi-sensei, there are ninja in that country too, aren't there?"

Kakashi replied, "No, there are no ninja in the Land of Waves. In some other countries there are other hidden villages with their own individual Customs and Cultures where ninja reside. To the people of this continent the existence of Shinobi Villages means strength, military strength. In other words, that's how they protect themselves and maintain the balance of power with neighbouring countries. While Shinobi Villages may exist within a nation's borders, they are not directly controlled by the Nation's Government; they're independent and have equal status. A small island like the Land of Waves has natural protection provided by the sea. So there's no real need for a Shinobi Village. The five great nations are those of Fire, Water, Lightning, Wind, and Earth, each have a shinobi village, Konohagakure, Kirigakure, Kumogakure, Sunagakure and Iwagakure respectively. Each one has gained the right to have a leader known as a Kage. Konoha has the Hokage, Kirigakure has the Mizukage, Kumogakure has the Raikage, Sunagakure has the Kazekage and Iwagakure has the Tsuchikage. Recently another village has emerged, rapidly gaining the strength to compete with The Five Great Shinobi Nations, Otogakure with their leader, the Otokage. Very little is known about that village though, not even the country that it is located in. At any rate, there are no ninja battles on  
>C-Rank missions. So you don't need to worry."<p>

Naruto cocked his head in confusion at Kakashi's statement, having felt the presence of two enemy shinobi a long time ago. Naruto shrugged and thought, '_well, I suppose that I should probably keep an eye on them and go on like normal anyway._' They kept on walking for another half hour before they saw a puddle in the middle of the road. Naruto's face scrunched up in confusion at the ninjas' concept of a disguise and walked closer to Tazuna. After Tazuna and Team 7 had passed the puddle the two 'hidden' shinobi jumped up, out of the puddle and surrounded Kakashi with a chain attached to two gloves, of which, both shinobi were wearing one. Once the chain was wrapped around Kakashi they pulled tight, causing Kakashi to be cut into a million pieces. The charged at Naruto and said, "You're next." As they wrapped the chain around Naruto, Naruto had not been idle. After Kakashi was sliced into smithereens Naruto had started a series of one-handed handseals and, when they were almost finished wrapping him up in the chain Naruto touched Tazuna's shoulder and they both disappeared into a splash of water. While Naruto had done his job Sasuke took the effort to show off and appeared outside the now useless chain circle and kicked the shinobi that was trying to attack Naruto. As he did he threw a kunai at the chain that connected the two gloves, embedding it in a tree. Seeing that their chain was now useless they detached it from their gloves and one of them went on to attack Sasuke while the other charged at Sakura.

As Sasuke was about to be impales Kakashi used a Kawarimi to replace himself with Sasuke, and grabbed the enemy's forearm and spun about, throwing him at the one that was charging Sakura, knocking them both out in the process. Sakura looked on at Kakashi with amazement and gratitude, for Kakashi's survival and his saving her.

Seeing that everything was over Naruto released his jutsu and both he and Tazuna reformed out of the water. Sasuke looked at Naruto with disdain and said, "You coward, what were you thinking."

"Gee whiz, I don't know, maybe about the job that we were hired to do, not about showing off."

"Showing off? Why you..."Sasuke said, grabbing Naruto by his collar.

"That's enough," Kakashi said, breaking Sasuke's hold on Naruto's clothes. "Sasuke, Naruto's right. _He_ protected the client, while you almost go t killed."

"What was that?"

"That said, what would you have done had I not survived Naruto?"

"Oh, but I know you did, just like I knew that those two goons were there."

"Uhh...I have just one question," Sakura said.

"Yes?" Kakashi replied.

"Who exactly are they?"

"They," Kakashi said, indicating the two unconscious shinobi, "Are Gōzu and Meizu, also known as The Demon Brothers, they are two Chūnin level Missing-Nin from Kirigakure. By the way, Mr. Tazuna, we need to talk."

Tazuna's eyes widened, asking, "Ehh, why is that?"

"As I said, those two, are Chūnin, their specialty is relentless attack. They keep fighting, no matter what the sacrifice."

Meizu looked up from the tree that he was ties to and asked, "how did you know about our ambush?"

"A puddle, on a clear day, when it hasn't rained in more than a week?"

Tazuna looked at Kakashi and asked, "If you knew that then why did you leave the fighting to the Genin?"

"Well, it's true that I could have taken them out quickly, but then I would have learnt nothing. I had to know _who_ their target was, and what they were after."

"What are you getting at?"

"I needed to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or after you, the master bridge builder. When you put in your request you put in for standard protection from robbers and highwaymen. You didn't say that there were ninja after you. If we knew this it would be a B-Rank mission or higher. Our mission was simply to get you to your destination and protect you while you were building your bridge. If we knew that we would be fighting other ninja we would have staffed differently and charged for the cost of a B-Rank mission. Apparently you had your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable. We are now beyond the scope of this mission."

Sakura said, "We are only Genin, this is far too advanced for our level of training. We should go back."

"Well, I would have told you, really, but we just couldn't afford a higher paying mission. We have spent all of our limited financial resources on building this bridge."

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In a shack in a forested area in the Land of Waves a grumpy old man yelled out, "You failed! I thought that I hired top quality ninja!"

A figure cloaked in shadow growled, "Stop your whining," and levelled his great sword, the Kubikiribōchō at the old man's neck. "This time, I'll go personally. And this sword will be the last thing that he ever sees."

The old man's bodyguard said, "Are you sure about that, it appears that Tazuna has a high-level ninja looking after him. Since your first attempt failed, he'll be expecting you back. We'll be waiting, watching. It'll take someone with very advanced skills..."

The figure cut the guard off, moving forward, revealing his face to be half-hidden by a mask of bandages, demanding, "Who do you think you're dealing with? I am Momochi Zabuza, Kirigakure no Kijin"

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Attacks

Suiton: Mizugakure = Water Release: Hidden in Water

- The jutsu that Naruto used to protect Tazuna from The Demon Brothers

Aliases

Kirigakure no Kijin= The Demon of Kirigakure


	16. Naruto's True Skills

"...We have spent all of our limited financial resources on building this bridge," Tazuna finished.

Kakashi didn't give two hoots about the reason behind the Bridge Builders reasons and said, "Regardless of your reasons, the current members of this team; myself excluded, as Sakura said, are incapable of handling a mission of this level."

"Well, of course you don't have any obligation to continue the mission requested as I have misinformed you as to the correct details of the mission, but, if you don't continue my beautiful daughter will cry and never trust any ninja ever again, not to mention having nothing to do with the fire country either. Then there's my grandson, he'll weep and wail for months, 'Grandpa, Grandpa, why did you have to die', and he'll curse Konoha for the rest of his life."

Kakashi groaned, sighed, and said, "You're making it really difficult to say no..." Kakashi sighed again, "...I suppose that we don't really have much of a choice. Alright then, I'll need to send a message to Konoha, telling them about these two, then we can go on with this mission." Kakashi summoned Pakkun and told him to go to Konoha and tell the Sandaime Hokage about what was going on.

While this was going on, Naruto was thinking, '_If we _do _continue on with this mission the next ones that 'they', whoever 'they' are, send won't be on the level of those two,_' Naruto looked at the Demon Brothers, '_it'll be a Jounin level shinobi. If the Jounin is from Kirigakure too then Sasuke'll be completely useless, Sakura's already useless anyway, and from what I've seen from Kakashi, he won't be too much help either, which means that..._' Naruto said, "Well, now that that's done let's get going," heading off in the direction that they had previously been walking.

Four hours later the party consisting of Tazuna and Team 7 reached the border of the Land of Fire. Once there Tazuna led the shinobi to a boat that a friend of his had moored there in preparation for their arrival. Tazuna went over to the boat and shook the man asleep in it. He forcefully whispered, "Hey, hey, Setsuna, wake up."

Setsuna drowsily groaned, "Give me five more minutes would ya?"

"HEY! We need to get back home immediately, that's why you were waiting here, isn't it?"

"OH, right, Tazuna, you're back!" Setsuna, now fully awake, exclaimed. "Did you get the ninja?"

"Yes, they're here with me. Now, hurry, there's no time to lose."

"Right you are," Setsuna said, hurriedly unmooring his boat from the wharf that his boat was tied to. Tazuna and Team 7 got on the boat when Setsuna informed them that it was safe to do so. When they were all onboard Setsuna set off.

When the boat was halfway to the Land of Waves Kakashi turned to Setsuna and said, "Setsuna-san, could you please stop the boat for a minute?"

"Sure thing," Setsuna said as he stopped the boats forward momentum.

Tazuna turned to Kakashi and asked, "Why do you want to stop, we'll be sitting ducks if they try to attack us now."

"You may be right, but before we go any further we need to know the full situation."

"Yes, I suppose you do, and there's no point in hiding it any further. It would probably be detrimental to your mission. You said to the pinkette before that the Land of Waves is offered natural protection from the sea, correct?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"In times past you would be correct of course, but recently we have hit upon some hard times and the seas that once protected us, are now quickly becoming the cause of the destruction of the Land of Waves. Have you ever heard of a businessman named Gato?"

Naruto thought, '_Gato, Gato, where have I heard that name before? Of course there's his well known business dealings but I can't help but think that I know the name from elsewhere...well, I suppose I'll remember later._'

"The shipping magnate?" Kakashi asked, "Of course, everybody should at least know _of_ him."

"Yes, well on the surface all of his corporations are completely legit, but underneath the surface he has his hands in all sorts of illegal dealings, ranging from narcotics to selling nations secrets. Recently Gato gained control of all of the seafaring businesses in the Land of Waves, and has raised the prices on all of the goods sold, both to the vendors and the general populace. Naturally the raised prices for ingredients were reflected in the prices of the food bought, causing all sorts of famine. When you get there you will be shocked that barely six months ago the Land of Waves was a prosperous land, full of life and energy. We have put all of our hopes into this bridge that will connect the Land of Waves to the mainland. Of course, like with food, you need materials to build with and we spent most of our lands finances in acquiring the materials, which led to my deceiving Konoha in asking for a lower costing mission."

"I see," Kakashi said, "So since the bridge that you are making is threatening Gato's control over the people of the Land of Waves he needs to get rid of you to stop the bridge being completed?"

"Exactly. That's when he hired ninja to 'take care of us'."

"I see," Kakashi said, "Well then, we will certainly continue on with this mission."

"Oh thank you," Tazuna said as the boat moved off once again.

"Of course you will be charged for the full cost of a B-Rank mission once you are able to pay for it in full."

"I suppose I should have expected that. Very well I accept your conditions."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Soon enough the boat touched shore and Tazuna and Team 7 disembarked, Setsuna saying, "Well, I'll be off now, I don't want any trouble."

Tazuna said, "Yes, of course, thank you for taking us this far."

"Yeah, just make sure that you don't die."

Naruto, hearing this, said, "Don't worry about _that_, that's what we're here for."

Setsuna thought, '_I don't know why, but for some reason I believe him._' Setsuna then said, "Alright, I'll hold you to that."

"Of course, a ninja _never_ goes back on his word."

As he set off Setsuna smiled and said, "I think that I've heard that before somewhere...ah well, who knows. I'll be seeing ya."

Tazuna said, "Alright, my house is half an hour away from here," and started walking away from the shoreline.

Naruto thought, '_I suppose that I should probably..._' he went through a series of handseals and said, "Kami'gakari," causing the skin around his eyes to turn blue, his pupils and iris' to turn a burnt orange colour and his sclera to turn a plum colour(1).

Sakura, seeing Naruto's eyes change colour, asked, "Hey, Naruto, what the hell is wrong with your eyes?"

"It's a safeguard against ambushes," Naruto cryptically replied.

"What? How does it do that?"

Kakashi thought, '_A sensor ninjutsu? But there's no record of the Uzumaki having a jutsu like that._'

Naruto smiled and said, "Well, that's for me to know and you to find out."

Kakashi asked, "Why don't you just tell her that it's a sensor ninjutsu Naruto?"

Naruto sighed and said, "Because, about three hundred metres away someone is waiting for us, I'd say that, judging by their chakra, they are Jounin level."

"I see," Kakashi sighed before saying, "I thought so."

"Kakashi, I don't think that you will be able to..."

"Alright, let's go," said Kakashi, moving off.

Naruto thought, '_He's ignoring me now?_'

As Sasuke and Sakura followed Kakashi Tazuna stayed near Naruto and quietly asked him, "What were you about to say Naruto?"

Naruto half-heartedly smiled and said, "Apparently it would have only been ignored even if I had said it, well, either way, you'll find out soon enough."

"What do you mean?"

"I just told you didn't I? In three hundred metres we will come across an enemy shinobi," Naruto said as he walked alongside Tazuna. Naruto tapped Tazuna on his forearm, causing a seal to appear on it before immediately disappearing before Tazuna could even see it.

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Three hundred metres later found a sword swinging down at Tazuna and Team 7. Naruto pushed Tazuna down as Kakashi did the same for Sasuke and Sakura. Not ten seconds later a shinobi with half of his face masked in bandages appeared on top of the sword. Kakashi stepped forward and said, "Well well, if it isn't Momochi Zabuza, from Kirigakure."

Naruto thought, '_so, this is Zabuza huh?_' as he started to walk forward.

Before he could go very far though Kakashi blocked his way with his hand and said, "get back, you're in the way," Kakashi, seeing Naruto not move an inch, said, "He's not like those other ninja, he's in a whole other league. If he's our opponent, I'll need this," Kakashi moved his hand up to his headband.

Zabuza said, "Kakashi of the Sharingan eye, did I get that right? It's too bad huh, you'll have to hand over the old man."

Naruto thought, '_Sharingan? What the hell is that?_'

Sakura thought, '_Sharingan? Does Kakashi-sensei have some sort of special power?_'

Kakashi ordered, "Now quick, manji formation. Protect the bridge builder, and stay out of this fight."

Sakura asked, "Huh?"

"I taught you teamwork, it's time you use it." Kakashi pulled up his headband revealing a red eye with three tomoe present in the irises and said, "I'm ready."

Zabuza said, "Well well, it seems that I get to see the Sharingan in action. This is an honour."

Sakura asked, "Kakashi-sensei, what's a Sharingan?"

Sasuke answered, "Sharingan. A rare power that resides in the eyes, the user of this Dōjutsu can instantly see and comprehend any form of Ninjutsu, Taijutsu or Genjutsu and reflect the attack back on the attacker. There is however more to the Sharingan than that, a lot more."

Zabuza said, "You got it right boy, but you only scratched the surface. The Sharingan can analyse an opponent's technique and then copy it to the smallest detail. As for you, Jounin, when I was in the Assassination Unit of Kirigakure we had a standing order to destroy you on sight. Your profile was in our Bingo Book. It called you, the man claimed to have copied over a thousand jutsu, 'Kakashi, the Copy Ninja'"

Sakura thought, '_What_? _Is Kakashi-sensei really such a famous ninja?_'

Sasuke thought, '_Wait a minute, the Sharingan is a rare trait that only occurs in a few members of the Uchiha Clan, my clan. Could he be..._'

Zabuza said, "Enough talking. I need to exterminate the old man." Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura jumped into a defensive position around Tazuna, Naruto at the front of the formation. "So, I'll have to eliminate _you_ first huh, Kakashi? So be it." Zabuza pulled his sword out of the tree as he jumped onto the nearby water.

Naruto and Kakashi thought, '_he's building up a massive amount of chakra. Is it for..._'

"Suiton: Kirigakure," Zabuza said as a veil of mist swirled up around Zabuza and stretched forth, enveloping Tazuna and Team 7 in it's grasp.

Sakurasaid, "sensei, what is this mist?"

Kakashi, ignoring Sakura's question, said, "He'll come after _me_ first, then you guys."

"But, who is he?"

"A former Taichō of Kirigakure's Assassination Unit, a master of the Silent Killing technique."

Naruto thought, '_Silent Killing technique? Then I was right.'_

"As the name implies, it happens in an instant, without sound or warning of any kind. It is so fast that you pass from this life without ever realising what has happened. The Sharingan cannot fully neutralise it."

Naruto said, "Of course it can't."

Kakashi demanded, "What?"

"Something as gimmicky as that Dōjutsu you're using is could _never_ counter Silent Killing techniques. After all, there's only two ways to full counteract them."

Hiding inside the mist Zabuza thought, '_Where have I heard that before?_''

"There's only two ways to counter a hidden villages Silent Killing techniques, one is with Silent Killing techniques of your own, which, I'm guessing you don't have Kakashi."

Kakashi asked, "And the other?"

"This," Naruto said, "Kami'gakari," making a handseal, causing his eyes to change once again.

Zabuza thought, '_Kami'gakari? I've only ever come across one person that could use that jutsu. That bitch from Takigakure._' Zabuza, from deep inside the mist asked, "How do you know Taki no Shinku Shinsui, brat?"

Naruto smirked and said, "I'll tell the real one after I beat him," as he threw a kunai at the Mizu Bunshin that had done the talking. Naruto then threw three more kunai into the mist, two causing splashes to be heard from inside the mist and one clinking off Zabuza's sword. Naruto turned to Kakashi and said, "You protect Tazuna while I take care of Zabuza."

"No way, you just got lucky then. Zabuza is way above your level Naruto."

Naruto smirked as he said, "What level is that exactly? You have no idea where I'm at."

Kakashi thought, '_well, I suppose that I _could_ use this as a way to get a read on Naruto's level,_' and said, "alright then, go ahead, he's all yours," '_maybe this fight will be good for Naruto, make him see where he's _really_ at, after all, defeat can be good, once in a while. But no...I can't let him fight Zabuza, not for any reason, he's just not ready yet..._' Kakashi said, "I'm sorry Naruto, but I can't allow you to fight him, Zabuza is mine."

Naruto sighed and said, "I thought you'd say that," and grabbed Kakashi on his forearm. "I truly am sorry Kakashi, but I can't let you interfere." As he said that black lines extended from his hand, covering Kakashi's legs and arms.

"Naruto, if you seal my movements like this then I won't be able to do anything."

Naruto replied, "don't worry, it's got a time release on it."

"How long?"

"Look at your arm, you should at least be able to do that."

Kakashi looked at his arm and saw that there was indeed a number thirty that was counting down. Kakashi thought, '_So, he's set it up so that it just gives him enough time to begin fighting Zabuza, at the same time eliminating the threat against Tazuna should he not be able to draw Zabuza's attention. Not bad, although..._'

Meanwhile, inside the mist Naruto had appeared before Zabuza, swinging his blade, attempting to cleave his head from his shoulders. Zabuza did however bring his own blade up, blocking Naruto's with the flat of his blade. Zabuza grabbed the end of his blades grip and pushed Naruto backwards as he brought his sword around, trying to cut him in half. Naruto spun as he flew through the air, bringing his blade around to protect himself against Zabuza's attack. Zabuza thought, '_how'd he find me...It can't have been a fluke...wait, if he really does know the Taki no Shinku Shinsui_ _then it is possible that he really does know that bloody Kami'gakari jutsu._' Just then Naruto once again appeared behind him, this time with two swords ready. He swung with the first, causing Zabuza to bring his blade around to block him once again, this time with the blades edge rather than its flat. Naruto then brought the second blade down, this one against the flat of the blade to propel him over Zabuza's blade and then, doing a cartwheel in mid-air, brought the first one down on Zabuza's shoulder. Before Naruto could cut all the way through Zabuza moved forward, dodging the rest of Naruto's attack. Once Zabuza was facing Naruto yet again he said, "So, you really were trained by that redheaded bitch. That means that further fighting in this mist will be completely useless," Zabuza did a few handseals, causing the mist to dissipate.

Once Naruto and Zabuza were revealed to Tazuna and the remaining members of Team 7 Kakashi thought, '_Naruto forced Zabuza to abandon his Silent Killing technique! How could he...?_'

Sasuke's eyes widened and narrowed in rage at Naruto's clearly superior skills. While Sakura, still off in pixie land, nodded to herself, as she thought, '_Naruto must have gotten lucky somehow._'

Tazuna though, was thinking back on what Naruto had been saying after they had disembarked, '_So this is what he was talking about._'

Zabuza meanwhile hadn't been idle, he had gone through a series of handseals before announcing, 'Suiton: Sensatsu Suishō,' causing many needles of water to rise up from the nearby lake. Once the needles were high enough, they rushed at Naruto, who extended his hand outwards. When the needles were less than three feet away they stopped where they were. Zabuza's eyes widened as he demanded, "What! What the hell are you doing you brat?"

Naruto replied, "You didn't actually think that once I had a few Suiton jutsu that I would be satisfied, did you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that I have completely mastered Suiton to the point that I can even do something like this, Suiton: Yumi." As Naruto announced the name of his jutsu the water needles moved slowly towards Naruto and, when they were at his hand, formed into an orb of water, which continued on to change its form into that of a pyramid bow.

"What the hell is that?"

"The answer to _that_ should be obvious."

Zabuza growled and said, "I wouldn't know about that, but what is obvious, to me at least, is that you need to be killed now, before you can get any stronger." Zabuza then returned his sword to his back and jumped down to the water of the lake. Zabuza then went through a number of handseals before saying, "Suiton: Suiryūdan," causing a gigantic dragon made of water to rise up and quickly charge at Naruto's location. Naruto, for his part, merely drew back on the string of his watery bow as an arrow formed and the bow shrank. When the dragon was halfway to Naruto's location, he started to release the arrow that he had created, but felt a pulling sensation as he was removed from his position and replaced with Kakashi. Naruto stopped trying to let the arrow fly and, now that he was out of the fight, instead let his jutsu drop.

As Naruto let his jutsu fall Sakura rounded on him and demanded, "What the hell were you thinking, charging in at Zabuza like that? There's no way that you can beat him."

Tazuna thought, '_was this girl actually watching what just happened, or is she just blind,_' before saying, "You might want to get your eyes checked when you get back to Konoha girly."

Sakura's eyes lost their pupils and irises as she rounded on Tazuna and demanded, "What was that?"

"Weren't you watching what we were? Naruto just forced Zabuza to relinquish that weird mist jutsu of his and then take control of the enemy's jutsu. It should be obvious that Naruto was correct in his assessment of the enemy and his actions were the correct ones. I'm also sure that whatever he was about to do before your showboating sensei took his place."

"Kakashi-sensei wouldn't showboat."

"Actually Sakura, that's exactly what he's doing," Naruto said, "Kakashi should be well aware that two clashing identical chakra's will cancel each other out. That's why I took control of his Suiton: Sensatsu Suishō jutsu."

"Hey, don't disrespect our sensei Naruto."

Naruto scoffed and said, "I only have one sensei, and she's not from Konoha."

"What? Then who is it?"

"Sakura, didn't you hear Zabuza?" Sasuke asked. "He told us who trained Naruto, it was Taki no Shinku Shinsui."

"'Taki no Shinku Shinsui', who's that?"

"You should have at least heard of her Sakura, Taki no Shinku Shinsui, is said to have gained the name through her mastery of Suiton and the fact that whenever she leaves a trail of blood wherever she goes." Sakura felt a chill go down her spine as Sasuke told her of what he knew of Taki no Shinku Shinsui. "What _I_ want to know though," Sasuke's voice took on a rough, angry, edge as he glared at Naruto and asked, "Is just _why_ did she train you?"

Naruto replied, "That, Sasuke, is absolutely none of your damn business and I would like you to keep any further enquiries to yourself."

Sasuke growled as he turned back to where Kakashi was fighting against Zabuza.

While Sasuke, Sakura and Tazuna had been discussing Naruto's actions Kakashi and Zabuza's fight had continued. When Kakashi had switched with Naruto he threw a kunai with an exploding tag attached to it at the head of the dragon. It hit the dragon in the mouth and exploded, causing the water to lose its shape and the jutsu to end. After the water had settled down Kakashi dropped to the water's surface and said, "Zabuza, the real fight starts now."

Zabuza said, "That's funny, I thought that the real fight was against the blonde kid." Kakashi let out an irritated growl as he charged at Zabuza, drawing a kunai. When Zabuza brought his blade around to meet Kakashi's kunai Kakashi channelled Raiton chakra into it and then into the Kubikiribōchō, shocking Zabuza. Zabuza jumped back, away from Kakashi and, once again, returned his sword to his back. Zabuza then went through the handseals for Suiton: Suiryūdan, this time copied by Kakashi. As he saw Kakashi's mirroring his movements exactly Zabuza's eyes widened as he thought, '_He's copying my movements down to the slightest detail! How is that possible?_' Zabuza then looked at Kakashi's red eye and thought, '_Of course, how could I have forgotten, he has the Sharingan. But there's no way that a copy could beat the original._' As they finished the handseals Kakashi and Zabuza simultaneously announced, "Suiton: Suiryūdan," causing identical water dragons to rise up, out of the water, and charge at each other. The two dragons clashed, again and again until Kakashi's bit Zabuza's below its head, causing both of them to collapse into nothingness. Zabuza ran in a circle around Kakashi, Kakashi mimicking his every movement. Zabuza thought, 'can he read my...'

Kakashi said, "Every thought."

'_What? There's just no way..._' Zabuza closed his eyes and, calming down, said, "enough playing around!" Zabuza sped through some handseals and said, "Suiton: Sui..." Zabuza's eyes widened as he saw a copy of himself appear behind Kakashi, who said, "Suiton: Daibakufu," causing a circle of water to rise up behind him and then spiral towards Zabuza. As Zabuza was blasted away by the torrent of water, he thought, '_How can this be, I was about to create a vortex, but he created one first!_' Zabuza then proceeded to scream until he crashed into a tree, the water pushing against him as it continued on through the trees.

After the water died down Zabuza struggled to stand up, but before he could a masked ninja appeared on a branch above Zabuza and flung two Senbon towards him. Zabuza fell to the ground as the two Senbon pierced his neck. Kakashi jumped next to Zabuza and checked his pulse, to see if he was still alive, finding none he said, "no vital signs."

The masked ninja bowed to Kakashi and said, "thank you, I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time, waiting for this chance to finally take him down."

"By your mask I see that you're a Hunter-Nin from Kirigakure."

The masked ninja stood up from his bow as he said, "impressive, you're well informed. Well, I'll be taking his body now."

Kakashi said, "Yeah, go right ahead."

The masked ninja said, "Once again, I thank you," as he picked Zabuza up and took him away from the ninja

Naruto frowned, thinking, '_what's wrong with this situation?_'

After the Hunter-Nin left Kakashi collapsed where he was standing due to chakra exhaustion; Sasuke and Sakura rushed to Kakashi, catching him as he fell to the ground. Sakura looked at Tazuna, who asked, "What happened to him?"

Sakura replied, "He's suffering from chakra exhaustion. He should be fine once he gets enough rest, but right now he's practically useless."

"Alright, he can rest at my house, it's not too much further from here."

"Alright, Naruto you need to help Sasuke carry Kakashi-sensei to Tazuna-san's house."

"Why? Scared you'll break a nail?"

"No," sakura dragged out, thinking '_how could he know that?_'

Naruto sighed and said, "Fine," as he moved to take hold of Kakashi's feet as Sasuke grabbed his arms. Five minutes later they reached Tazuna's house, where he led them to a guestroom that had a bed that they lay Kakashi down on. The three Genin were then led to a room that they were to use to sleep for the night.

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Author's Note

(1) The colour of Uzumaki Kushina's hair in the anime


	17. Realisation and Future Planning

Half an hour later Zabuza stirred from the ground where Haku had laid him to remove the Senbon from his neck. As he slowly sat up he growled, "Geez Haku, you're as brutal as always."

"I had to make it look good for the audience, although I am unsure if I managed to fool the blonde kid."

"Yeah, that blonde's no mere brat. He'll pose a true obstacle to our mission."

"What should we do then? I could..."

"No, you're not a good match against him either. He's completely mastered Suiton. That much is obvious. That will also mean that all Suiton jutsu, no matter which one, will be completely useless against him. He's just like his sensei."

"His sensei? You mean that silver haired Jounin that I saw fighting against you?"

"No, Kakashi's good, but there's no way that he could teach someone Takigakure-Ryū: Mizukiri no Yaiba, there's only one other person that I know of that can use Mizukiri no Yaiba and a sensor ninjutsu simultaneously and that's Uzumaki Amayah. The blonde's name is Uzumaki Naruto, wether there is a direct relationship or not, that's who trained him."

"Did you say Uzumaki?" Haku paused, "Then it's no wonder that the blonde is talented with Suiton jutsu."

"Indeed, the talent with Suiton inherent in his blood might even allow him to take control of your Hyōton jutsu, ice is just cooled water after all."

"If that's so then none of our other comrades shall be effective either."

"That's true."

"Then, we hire someone from the outside?"

"Yes, it's the only way that I can think of that has even the slightest chance of working."

"Do you have any idea as to whom you..."

"Yes, there's a Missing-Nin from Kumogakure, Kumo no Kyōi Fūsoku."

"Blazing wind? Why do they call him that?"

"I'm not entirely sure, but if you want to counter a Suiton user you need to be able to do one of two things, use Doton jutsu, or find a way to increase the heat of a fire jutsu, thereby evaporating the water. Kumo no Kyōi Fūsoku has clearly found a way to do the latter. Well, either way, I won't be able to move much for about a week; Kakashi shouldn't be able to either. Once we get back to the shack I want you to go to a bar in the Land of Fire, in Tanzaku-gai, there you'll find a man named Takayanagi Masataka(1), tell him that I'm calling in that favour and want to speak with Kumo no Kyōi Fūsoku. When Kumo no Kyōi Fūsoku arrives I want you to lead him here," Zabuza finished as they reached the shack that they were using as their temporary residence. Zabuza limped inside while Haku headed to Tanzaku-gai.

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The next day, in Tazuna's house, Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura were gathered around Kakashi's prone form. When Kakashi suddenly sat up Sakura sighed with relief, as she did Naruto sighed in derision. Kakashi, quietly, stared off into nothingness as he thought, '_I know that there's something wrong, but what is it?...what am I missing?...wait a second! It's not that I'm missing something, it's something I've overlooked...something important...what is it..._' Kakashi's eyes widened as he realised what him mistake was. '_It's that Hunter-Nin's weapons. He was using Senbon, which can have varied effects based on where they hit. In the hands of someone that has been extensively trained in the human body, inducing a death-like state could be easily accomplished, and that means..._' Kakashi sighed in both regret and apprehension.

Sakura asked, "What's the matter sensei?"

"There is the possibility that Zabuza is still alive, no, I'm sure of it."

"Wha...? How can that be? You checked his vital signs, I saw you."

"Yes, but think of the weapons that that Hunter-Nin used."

Naruto bowed his head as he sighed and said, "So that's what it was."

"So, you thought that there was a problem too Naruto?"

"Yeah, only this time I won't be of any use against Zabuza."

"Why is that?" Sakura asked.

"Because, Sakura," Kakashi said, "When Naruto took control of Zabuza's jutsu Zabuza found out the extent of Naruto's skill with Suiton."

"That's right," Naruto said, "And all of the ninja that Zabuza has with him are probably from Kirigakure."

"Yes, and Kirigakure are also well known for their ninja's use of Suiton ninjutsu. If that does turn out to be the case then Zabuza will be planning a countermeasure against Naruto. Since there will be nowhere near enough time for either him or his men to learn a completely new element he'll likely go for the faster, easier, option."

"Hiring another ninja."

"Right, probably a Doton user."

"Doton? How can you know that sensei?" Sakura asked.

"Because, Sakura, all of the basic elemental types have both a positive and a negative relationship with two of the other elements. Take Naruto's Suiton jutsu for example. His Suiton jutsu are weak against Doton jutsu, but, conversely, they are strong against Katon jutsu."

"I see. I suppose that that would make sense."

Naruto said, "Well, I have my own training to take care of, so I'll see you guys later."

Kakashi asked, "What will you be doing?"

"Preparing for my upcoming battle of course."

"Of course, but if it's alright, I'd like you to come and train with us for a while, alright?"

"Sure, I guess," Naruto said, not seeing how it could hurt.

"Good, let's get going then shall we?" 

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Author's Notes:

(1) I am well aware that the name is one used in Tenjou Tenge, I just can't be bothered  
>thinking up a completely new name for a character that won't be around for very long.<p>

Alias'

Kumo no Kyōi Fūsoku - Kumogakure's Blazing Wind


End file.
